Utopia, My Way
by Sake-kunXx
Summary: AU for Utopia, in which there is more than just the master that returns to see the Doctor. I Posted this ages ago on Teaspoon, and it got a great responce, so I'm trying on here too.
1. Crash landing

Utopia, my way

Utopia, my way.

"Cardiff!" The Doctor exclaimed as the TARDIS landed with a resounding _thump._

"Cardiff?!" Martha repeated with disgust.

"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff is it was built on a Rift in time and space, just like California and the Sanadress fault , but the Rift bleeds energy, and every now and then I need the open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

"It's a pit stop!" Martha clicked, her face lighting up at the normality of it.

"Exactly!" he answered. She was even cleverer that he gave her credit for. She could still be a little slow sometimes, but she was getting better. "'Should only take twenty seconds." He flicked a switch. A sound from the control panel alerted him to something. "The Rift's been active."

Outside a man wearing a World War Two long coat with a huge backpack slung over his shoulder ran through Cardiff as fast as he could, heading towards the blue box that had, for three months, oh so long ago, he had called home.

"Doctor!" yelled Captain Jack Harkness, before turning his head to see his blonde haired companion trying to keep up.

"C'mon, don't say you're tired already!" he called breathlessly.

"Never!" the Blonde replied, "But it's been a long time since I've had to run his far and this fast with my heart beating out a samba to boot!"

"Ah, but, I thought that it was two hearts now!" Jack winked.

"Shut up!" She shot back, but she couldn't help but let her tongue slip between her teeth as she grinned. She was finally going home.

"Wait a minute, they had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago, was that you?"

"A bit of trouble with the Slitheen. Long time ago. Life times. I was a different man back then."

"Doctor!" They both yelled as they again.

The Doctor panicked slightly as he saw the image of Jack Harkness running towards them, but ignored it as he said loudly "And go!" as he threw the final switch. If he had of noticed Jack's companion perhaps he would not have been so hasty.

Both jack and his old friend jumped for the TARDIS at the same time.

Sparks flew from the console as both the Doctor and Martha were thrown to the floor by a sharp jolt of the ancient ship.

"What's that?!" Martha demanded, looking at the gibberish that was currently showing up on the display screen.

Another explosion of sparks erupted from the control panel and the Doctor angrily wafted away the smoke that followed, putting a foot on the panel in an attempt to keep balance.

"We're accelerating; into the future; the year one billion," he was cut off as the ship changed direction sharply, going forwards this time, almost making him crash face first into the screen, "What! Were going back to 2007, no wait!" Another backwards jolt, "five billion," forwards, "2007, make up your mind?!" he hit the ship with the mallet hidden under the console that he saved for special occasions "five trillion, fifty trillion, what?! The year one hundred trillion, that's impossible!"

"Why, what happens then?" He was getting that broken worried voice, that was never a good sign, AND he'd used the word impossible. Not a good combination.

"We're going to the end of the universe!" he said, looking at her then back at the screen, disbelief etched into his boyish features.

Outside, unheard over the sounds of the TARDIS, Jack Harkness and his blonde companion clinged to the sides of the ship, not letting go of each others hands even as the vicious winds of the Time Vortex ripped at them fiercely, they screamed over the rush of time;

"Doctoooor!"

At their destination, a pack of wild-haired people, wearing dark leather, with hairy, tattoo covered and pierced faces, all looking up in unison, snapping as they smelled fresh meat on the wind. Their tyre-printed leader stepped forwards, speaking all their thoughts.

"Humans!" their mouths watered at the word, "humans are coming!"

A filthy, though defiantly human man clambered roughly over the slippery rocks that littered Baltazero, his breath quick and panic-stricken, looking behind him several times. He knew how dangerous it was on this planet, but his only thoughts were concentrated on getting to the silo. Suddenly a wild looking woman jumped in front of him, holding a heavy spiked ball and chain, growling and baring her teeth that were too big for her mouth.

"I just…I…I just wanna go! Please, let me go!"

The woman turned her head, surveying him like an animal, before turning her head.

"Human!" she yelled, her partner nodding and repeating the message.

Padra Shefcaine ran again as she repeated the word, excitement rising inside her.

Back at the Futurekind camp, the leader was riling up his pack, before shoving them out of the way. As leader he got first picks on their rare meals of man-flesh. Time for the hunt.

Professor Yana turned on the spot as he heard the bleeping of the surface scanner, noticing a single green dot, closely followed by about thirty more, which could only mean one thing.

"Movement, on the surface," He said pointing at the screen, "Another human-hunt, God help him."

"Chan should I alert the guards tho?" Chantho, his forever faithful companion, asked as she stood, anxious to help.

"No, no," the Professor answered, waving a hand to dismiss the idea, "We can't spare them, poor beggar's on his own. Another lost soul, dreaming of Utopia."

"Chan you mustn't talk like you've given up hope tho."

"No, no indeed, here's to it," He raised his metal cup in cheers. "Utopia!" he swallowed before grimacing ing disgust, "where it is to be hoped the coffee is a little less sour. Will you join me?"

"Chan I am happy drinking my own internal milk tho," Her insectoid face smiled in thanks.

"Yes, well, that's quite enough information thank you," He placed the mug down on the table just as Atillo's voice came cracking over the speakers.

"Professor, I don't mean to rush you, but how are we doing?"

"Ah yes, er yes, yes working, yes almost there."

"How's it looking on the Footprint?"

He gave a worried look at Chantho "It's good! Yes fine, excellent!"

He looked to Chantho for support, signing that she should take over.

"Chan there's no problem as such, we've accelerated the calculation Matrix, but it's going to take time to harmonise tho. Chan we're trying a new reversal process, will have a definite result in approximately two hours tho."

She looked round, noticing the Professor holding his head and breathing heavily.

"Chan Professor tho?"

The drums. They were back, the incessant noise that had haunted him his entire life, filling every waking hour, beating out a double march inside his head.

"Chan Professor Yana tho?"

They were the reason he worked himself so hard. They were never silent, but they were at least quietened during times of concentration, but immediately back at any relaxed moment; dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum.

"Chan Professor tho?"

"Yes, er yes, yes working."

"Chan it's the surface scanner Professor, it seems to be detecting a different signal tho."

"That's not a standard reading. Can't make it out. It would seem something new has arrived.

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor and Martha picked themselves up off the floor, having both been knocked there by the final quake as the ship had landed.

"Well," the Doctor said, looking between the time rotor and his companion, "We've landed."

"Where are we?" Martha asked shakily.

"I don't know."

"Say it again, that's rare."

"Not even the Time Lords came this far," He looked so serious, a look that didn't belong on those boy-ish features, "We should go. We should really really… go," He looked at her, serious face still in position, until suddenly it broke into a huge kid-at-Christmas grin before he raced her to the door.

What lay outside made even the Doctor speechless. Night, darker than Martha had ever imagined; no stars, no moon, nothing at all in the sky to give off light. It looked almost like a quarry, cliffs and wet boulders everywhere, dead grasses poking through here and there, brown from lack of light. The ground was covered in pieces of what looked like slate and the air was cold and still. They looked so out of place, the Doctor, Martha and the TARDIS, its' stunning blue and their usually unremarkable clothes a sharp contrast with the monotonous darkness surrounding it.

"Oh my God!" Martha cried out, noticing a man lying a few feet away, not moving. She ran over, remembering her medical training, checking him over. "Can't find a pulse. Hold on a minute, you've got that medical kit thing." She ran past him, back inside the TARDIS, searching frantically for the little green box under the console.

"Hello again." The Doctor said quietly to the man at his feet. "I'm sorry."

"Here we go. Get out of the way!" Martha shoved him out of the way, sticking the stethoscope in her ears, searching for a heartbeat.

"Bit odd though. Year one hundred trillion, that coat looks more like World War Two."

"I think he came with us."

"How d'ya mean, from Earth?"

"Musta been clinging onto the outside of the TARDIS, all the way through the Vortex. Well that's very him!"

"What, do you know him?"

"Friend of mine, used to travel with me, back in the old days."

"But he's… I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dea-"

She was interrupted when suddenly Jack grabbed her arms, gasping for breath.

"Whoa, so much for me! It's alright, just breathe deep, I've got you."

Over Jack's gasp for breath and Martha's scream, nobody heard the other gasp from behind the TARDIS. So naturally, nobody thought to watch as Jack's blonde companion sat up slowly, a hand over her double heartbeat, taking deep, shaky breaths.

Jack looked from the Doctor up to Martha "Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?" he rubbed Martha's chin charmingly.

_Typical Jack_, the Doctor thought, rolling his eyes, _the second he's got breath he's using it to chat up the nearest life form._

"Martha Jones"

"Nice to meet you Martha Jones."

"Oh don't start!" the Doctor said loudly, making his presence felt.

"I was only saying hello!"

"I don't mind." Martha blushed, helping Jack to stand up to face the Doctor.

"Doctor."

"Captain."

"Good to see you."

"And you. Same as ever I see, although," he scrutinised the other man's face carefully, "have you had work done?"

"You can talk!"

The Doctor looked slightly confused for a second, until realisation dawned on him "Oh the face! Regeneration! How did you know this was me?"

"Well the police box kinda gave it away."

"Yeah," came a voice from behind the box, making both the Doctor's hearts stop and his eyes to go wide. "Y'know Doctor, you should really sort out that chameleon circuit. You never know who might be catching a lift."

Praying to every deity that he could remember the name of, and a few he couldn't, every one of which he didn't, and had never believed in, that it wasn't a hallucination or dream, the Doctor turned on the spot. But there, leaning on the outside of his ship, tongue poking out of the corner of her teeth, peroxide-blonde hair tied back into a messy bun, was Rose Tyler.


	2. Show me your teeth

"Whah… la bu…huh

**Okay, I'm a liar, I'm actually a nice person, sorry ThisPhoenix. I'm in a good mood after plenty of excitement for the new episode and for next episode and Rose coming back next week (Wooo hoooo!!) And for "I've Lost My Profile Page", this is the reaction I've promised. Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 2**

"Whah… la bu…huh?" the Doctor said, blinking several times.

"Started well that sentence." Rose laughed, hitching an eyebrow.

"It got away from me, yeah." He closed his eyes, shook his head.

"How about we start with "hello" and see where we go from there, shall we?"

"Hello" he replied dumbly.

"Hello" Rose nodded, still smiling.

"Hello"

Rose and Jack tried to stifle their laughter, both remembering another time when the conversation had started like that.

"Sorry, that was hello twice."

Jack and Rose shared a look, grinning.

"Dull, but thorough." They said in unison.

"Sorry, I don't want to interrupt, but who the hell are you?"

"Martha, sorry, I almost forgot," said the Doctor, snapping out of his daze to look at her. "This is Captain Jack Harkness, as you already know, and this is… this is…" he couldn't bring himself to say it. In all his dreams, just as he said her name, he had woken up. He wasn't going o let go of this one.

"Rose Tyler." Rose said, stepping forward and offering her hand.

"Ah, should have guessed!" Martha said, rolling her eyes, "only you could do that," she gestured to the still stunned Doctor, "to him."

"What, d'ya know about me?"

"'Course I know about you. The second I stepped inside that ship he was telling me that I wasn't replacing you, making sure that I knew that I could never compare to the "Great Rose Tyler""

"He talked about me?"

"'Couldn't get him to bloody well shut up about you most of the time?"

Rose looked at the man that been in her every thought for so many years, though not a day of which showed on her face.

"Doctor?"

He looked up at her face, an almost guilty look on his face, dumbstruck.

"What makes me so different? You never told me about all your other companions until I met Sarah-Jane. So why did you talk about me? Or is it that you don't mind telling Martha about other companions, you just didn't with me?"

He never took his eyes from her face as he swallowed, shaking his head. Martha caught Jack's eye behind Rose and mouthed the words; "Who's Sarah-Jane?" Jack shrugged and put a finger to his lips.

"Because …" he swallowed again and licked his lips, "because it was too hard to… to just forget about _you_."

Rose took a tiny step back, blinking, dislodging the tears that had built therein.

"C'mere!" he said quietly, beckoning her into his open arms as she swallowed back a sob and flung herself into his embrace.

"Oh I have missed you so much!" Rose said, her voice muffled by the Doctor's coat.

"You too!" replied the Doctor, breathing in her scent as he kissed the top of her head.

Padra Shefcaine ran, on and on, hoping that he was goin the right way for the silo, the Futurekind hot on his heels.

The four of them walked on through the cold, dark and wet world that they had landed on, the Doctor holding Rose's hand in the lead, Jack and Martha bringing up the rear, talking among themselves.

"So there I was, stranded in the year 200100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this. I used to be a time agent. It's called a Vortex Manipulator; he's not the only one who can time travel."

"Excuse me, that is not time travel! It's like… I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper."

Rose and Martha looked at each other before shaking their heads and saying;

"Boys and their toys!" at which they both broke into laughter.

"Okay so I bounced!" said Jack, trying to keep some dignity, "I thought early twenty-first century, perfect place to find the Doctor, only I got it a little wrong, arrived in 1869, this thing burned out, so it was useless."

"Told you."

"I had to live through the entire twentieth century, waiting to find a version of you that would coincide with me."

"But that makes more that a hundred years old." Martha said.

"And looking good don't you think?" Jack laughed modestly, "So I went to the Time Rift, based myself there, 'cause I knew you'd have to come back to refuel, until finally I got a signal on this, detecting you and here we are!"

"But the thing is, why did you leave him behind though Doctor?"

"I was busy."

"Pah!" Rose interrupted, "Is that what you call it?"

"Why, what really happened?" Martha asked.

"Hmmm let's seem shall we?" she started counting on her fingers, "He'd regenerated, neglecting to tell me anything about it beforehand, left me with this" she gestured at the Doctor, "lunatic dancing around the TARDIS, saying stuff about teeth and moles, crashing the TARDIS on Christmas eve in my old estate, leaving me to look after an unconscious man in my mum's bed AND to single handedly stop an invasion of robot Santas and rock faced, blood controlling aliens who'd hypnotised one third of the world's population." She breathed heavily, having successfully stumped the Doctor into silence.

"Sounds fun." Martha after a moment.

"Well, you know, who wants a boring old Christmas, eh?"

"Is that what happens though, seriously. Do you just get bored of us one day and disappear?"

"Not if you're blonde." Jack said to Martha quietly.

"I can hear you ya know Jack!" Rose said over her shoulder.

"Ah ya know I'm only kidding Rosie."

"Yeah you be'er."

"Rosie?" the Doctor asked, quirking an eyebrow, "you never let me call you Rosie."

"You never asked."

"You never said."

"Oh yeah, I'm really gonna bring that up in a conversation; "oh, by the way, can you start calling me Rosie, I'm bored of my normal name?" I don't think so!"

"Are they always like this?" Martha asked quietly.

"Like what?"

"Like an old married couple, arguing all the time."

"Er, pretty much, yeah." Jack nodded, grinning.

"So, come on, where are we then Doctor?"

The Doctor blew through his teeth, looking around "I don't know, if I'm honest."

"Woah, say that again? Usually you at least have an idea, even if it's wrong."

"When was the last time I was wrong?"

"Mmhm" Rose asked, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a lethal look, "tell me, dear Doctor, what happened when you promised me Naples, 1960?"

The Doctor mumbled something inaudible, looking away.

"Sorry, I don't think any of us heard that?"

"Cardiff 1969."

"Lovely!" Martha put in sarcastically.

"Twelve hours. That's how long you said I'd have been away for. Twelve _months_ later Mickey had been accused of my murder and my mum had spent three-hundred and sixty-five days crying. 1979 to go see Ian Dury and the Blockheads at the Top Rank, Sheffield. Where do we land? _18_79, Scotland, where we were attacked by a Werewolf and banished from Earth never to return by Queen Victoria, and in so doing, creating Torchwood, which, as it turns out, was the only thing powerful enough to separate us. Need I go on?"

"No, no thank-you, that's quite enough. And anyway, I did warn you not to make her say "we are not amused." Didn't I? Didn't I tell you?"

"Erm, actually, as I seem to remember, you made me raise the stakes to a tenner."

"Well, anyway, I know exactly what year it is! It is the year one-hundred trillion; the end of the universe, so if you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate if you would all stop… blogging."

"Erm, in case you've forgotten, Doctor, Jack and I have quite a lot of catching up to do, and I haven't even started on what I've been up to. And before you ask, I'm not gonna start until we're somewhere where you can sit down. I think you're gonna need it."

"What do you mean by that?" the Doctor asked.

"Later!" Rose insisted firmly.

Everyone went silent as they came to the crest of hill, over looking a huge civilisation. It was so beautiful, yet so sad, as it looked as if it was long since abandoned, dust encasing its' entire area.

"Is that a city?" Martha asked in awe.

"A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration. That thing looks like it was grown, but look there, looks like… pathways or roads. It must have held some sort of life. Long ago."

"What killed it?" Rose asked sadly.

"Time. Just time, everything's dying now." He looked up, pointing as the sheer black sky, "This isn't just night. All the planets have burned up and faded away. Into nothing." He kept looking up, letting his arm drop to his side.

"There must be an atmospheric shell." Jack said looking back down to the others, "We should be frozen to death."

"Well… Rose, Martha and I maybe, not so sure about you Jack." He looked at the ex-time agent, giving a hard, penetrating stare, not noticing his words making Rose look away and shift uncomfortably.

"But does nothing survive?" Rose ventured, clearing her throat.

"I suppose," the Doctor said, giving her a look that could not have been more different to the one he had given to Jack, "we have to hope, life will find a way."

"Well he's not doing so bad." Jack pointed, everyone following the direction of his finger to a man running for his life from a pack of wild men and women who were chasing after him with a plethora of weapons, ranging from daggers to axes, spears to ball and chains.

"Is it me or does that look like a hunt?! C'mon!"

The Doctor lead the way down the hill, Rose still holding onto his hand, Martha not far behind and Jack was bringing up the rear.

"Oh I've missed this!" Jack grinned.

The Doctor grabbed the man, skidding to a stop on the loose, wet rocks. The man hid himself in the middle of the group, trying to escape his hunters.

"I've got you!" the Doctor said, noticing Jack levelling an old revolver at the head of the pack. "Jack don't you dare!"

Jack looked over his shoulder before changing his aim to point upwards and firing three warning shots, bringing the hunt to a stop.

"What the hell are they?!" Martha demanded.

"There's more of them, we've got to keep going!"

"I've got a ship nearby, it's safe, it's not far, it's over there."

He looked up to see thirty more of the savages coming from over the hill where the TARDIS was parked, blocking the way, surrounding them.

"Or maybe not." The Doctor conceded.

"We're close to the silo! If we get to the silo we're safe!"

"Silo?" the Doctor asked, looking around.

"Silo!" Jack said definitely.

"Silo for me!" Martha raised her hand

"And me!"

With that the chase was on, blood pounding every one of their ears, hearts beating feverishly until at last they turned a corner, a blinding spotlight training on them.

"It's the Futurekind!"

"Soldiers!" said a man, running forwards from behind the gate to the silo, raising a machine gun to follow them, "Show me your teeth, show me your teeth!"

The five hunted humans flew against the metal mesh of the fence, the soldier still demanding to see their teeth.

"Show him your teeth!" Padrafesh prompted, baring his own.

"Hardly the time for a check up." Rose said through gritted teeth.

"Human let them in, let them let them in!"

The gates were opened just far enough to allow them through before the soldier commanded "Close, close!"

As the Futurekind got closer the soldier fired his machine gun, bullets peppering the ground at the leader's feet, bringing the cannibals to a skidding stop. He looked at them hungrily, pacing in front of the fence like a caged wolf, his fellows snapping from behind him.

"Humans. Humanie. My feast!" his speech was slurred, hindered by teeth obviously too big for his mouth, overcrowded and uncomfortable.

"Guess that explains "show me your teeth"" Rose said quietly to the Doctor.

"Go back to where you came from. I said go back." The soldier raised the gun threateningly "Back!"

"Don't tell him to put his gun down!" Jack pointed out.

"He's not my responsibility." The Doctor argued.

"And I am" he laughed sarcastically, "that makes a change!"

"Have ones of you." The wild-man pointed at Martha. He looked at everyone behind the fence. "I'm hunge."

He waved his arm, sending his disappointed comrades back to wherever they came from.

"Thanks for that!" the Doctor gasped to their saviour.

"Right, let's get you inside!"

"My name is Padra Shefcaine. Tell me… just tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

"Yes sir," the soldier beamed. "Yes I can!"

They walked past a huge truck towards a dimly lit stone corridor as another soldier ran to take over the position of their guide.

Still working, the Professor and Chantho looked up as Atillo's voice came through the speakers of the laboratory.

"Professor, we have five new humans. One of them claims to be a Doctor."

"Of medicine?" the Professor asked.

"He says of everything."

"Oh, a scientist! Oh my word!" the old mans heart did a back flip as he flustered, handing what he was doing to Chantho.

"Erm, Chantho just, erm, just, oh I don't know. I'm coming!"

Chantho watched sadly as the Professor left the laboratory, her heart falling as he disappeared from view. She knew that, no matter what she did, however good an assistant she was, she would never be able to spark that fire inside his eyes. She sighed, burying these feeling deep inside her, as she always did, and continued her work.

The soldier had led them into a green-lit room, overhung by stairs, introducing them to a man called Atillo, before going to return to his post by the gate. Atillo had immediately moved over to a microphone and said something into it before handing each of them a transparent piece of either plastic or glass.

"It's a box. A big blue box." That was the Doctor of course, "I'm sorry but I really need it back, it's stuck out there."

Atillo, meanwhile, wasn't paying much attention, instead reciting numbers, presumably those printed on the disks that he was handing them in turn.

"I'm sorry but my family were heading for the silo, did they get here? My mother is Kistane Shefcaine, my brother's name is Belto."

"The computers are down but you can check the paperwork. Creet!" a smudged face, framed by locks of curly blonde hair, appeared around the corner, "Passenger needs help."

"Right, what do you need?"

Padra leapt forward, crouching in front of the boy, telling him his family's names. Martha stared at the boy, brow furrowed. He looked about nine or ten, but that couldn't be right. He shouldn't be working at this age.

Rose, meanwhile, was leaning on a metal table, watching the Doctor holding his disk up to the light, completely content. Even at moments like this it was so much better being here than at home. But… it was a strange feeling brewing inside her. One of her hearts was going so completely mad at being back with the man that she loved, but… the other was pining. Pining for what she had left behind at the place that she had called home for so long. Not that there was much left. Jackie had died just before she found a way through to her old universe, Mickey had moved abroad with Jake –who'd have thought it?- and now only John was left, taking her place as head of Torchwood. But that in itself was a long time ago now. But… now, being even farther from home than ever, brought her memories of her family fresh to her mind.

Atillo's voice broke through her thoughts, bringing her back the present.

"A blue box you said?"

"Big, wooden, says police."

"We're driving out for the last water collection, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you." The Doctor said sincerely.

"They're not on the list, but we can still have a look. C'mon." Creet said, flipping over the sheets of paper attached to his clip board.

"I'm sorry but how old are you?" Martha asked, curiosity finally getting the better of her.

"Old enough to work. This way." Creet gestured in the direction that he was walking, leading the way.

The Doctor looked at the disk he'd been allocated.

"Alpha-6-grape-dot-2-3-0" he read, putting it in his pocket, "Great. I'm a grape. Would have preferred banana but never mind."

"You're never gonna see that again ya know." Rose said, bemused smile playing across her face as she fell into step

"Whatcha mean?" the Doctor asked, automatically grabbing her hand.

"Those pockets of yours, they're like mini TARDISes. I remember I asked you to look after my purse once. I didn't see it again for a month." She gave him her trademark grin, tongue and all,

"Fair point." It was strange; how quickly they both fell back into their old way of talking, even after all the time they had spent in separate universes.

"How long has it been? For you?"

"Too long." Rose sighed. She wasn't ready for him to know what had happened to her. Not yet. "What about you?"

"About…" he blew out his cheeks, thinking, "Eight months or so."

_Lucky git!_ Rose tried not to think, "What about Martha? How long has she been around?"

"Almost as long. There was Donna, but she turned down my offer of travelling with me, went back home to Chiswick."

_Ah_ Rose thought, _that explains something then._

"They were never to replace you, ya know. Nobody could ever replace you."

"It's okay Doctor," she said, trying to ignore the warmth rising in her cheeks as her hearts did a back flip.

"It's okay Doctor, really." His face relaxed in relief, "I never wanted for you to be left alone. Like you said to me all that time ago, you need a lot of things to get across this universe, but most of all you need a hand to hold. I'm glad there was someone to hold _your_ hand at least. Now, if you don't mind," she continued before he realised what she was implying, winking at him and dropping his hand, "I'm going to have a chat with new meat."


	3. Never let women talk!

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Martha was watching Creet carefully as she followed him.

"Believe me," Rose said, jolting her from her thoughts, "travelling with the Doctor, you see a lot worse."

"I know but… he's so young. He shouldn't have to be working."

"I know what you mean. I met this alien, right. We were meant to be going to go see the 2012 Olympics, yeah, but… life with the Doctor is never that simple, is it?" Martha laughed in agreement, "Anyway, this thing was called the Isolus. They take a couple of thousand years to grow up, cast off from their mothers, just drifting through space."

"Poor things, don't they go mad?"

"That's what I thought but what they do is create their own little worlds where they can play."

"Cool, like in flight entertainment."

Rose lifted an eyebrow. She could see why the Doctor had chosen this girl.

"So come on! How did you get into all this? Rattling along with the Doctor?"

"I used to be ordinary enough. I was training to become a doctor myself. Still am if I ever pass my exams. Walking to work one day, family yakking down the phone at me, suddenly a man in a blue suit jumps out, takes off his tie and walks off."

"Wait, blue?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He never wore blue with me, only ever brow with blue pinstripes, like he's wearing now."

"He's only recently started wearing that one."

Rose furrowed her brow before shaking it off. It probably wasn't important.

"Anyway, I get to work, before I know it, the rain's going upwards and the hospital's sitting on the moon, being invaded by huge, rhino-headed creatures called Judoon searching for a blood-sucking little old lady and my mystery patient mister Smith, who when I examined, seemed to have two heartbeats, tells me he's an alien from another planet."

"Just a normal working day then!" Rose said brightly.

"Yeah, well who wants a normal day, eh?" Martha laughed. It was so weird. She had thought about meeting the "Great Rose Tyler" before, but never like this. She had imagined that they would be instant enemies, at each others throats in seconds, but this blonde woman was so easy to make friends with, and she was so much like the Doctor. It was the eyes. They were the same as his. Hers were a hazel brown instead of chocolate, but they possessed the same darkness. That same terrifying darkness that made you feel like you should run away and hide when they showed anger, but when they showed kindness and laughter, they told you that you could trust them with your life and never be let down.

"What about you?"

"Well, I wasn't as accomplished as you. I was nineteen, living in a flat with my mother in a dead-end job working in a shop. One day I'm about to leave when the security guy gets me to take the lottery money downstairs. Next thing I know I'm locked in a room with all these mannequins about to chop my head off. Suddenly a man in a leather jacket and a northern accent grabs my hand and tells me to run. We get outside, he asks me my name and tells me he's the Doctor and blows up the shop."

"Wait, what do you mean, "leather jacket and a northern accent"? The Doctor isn't either of those things."

"I was telling you before about how he regenerated after he left Jack behind. I guess he hasn't got round to telling you yet either. When a Time Lord is about to die, he can change his entire body, very single cell. But the thing is, he's still the same person, just looking different and, most of the time acting different as well. It's a bit like James Bond. You know how they always get different actors, but it's still the same person with the same memories and everything, just… different. Get it?"

Martha blinked several times; trying to understand everything she'd just been told. There was another aspect that the Doctor and Rose had in common. They both could talk at a million miles an hour and leave you completely dumbstruck. "I think so." She said finally, not really sure.

Jack and the Doctor were walking a few feet behind the girls, in a conversation of their own.

"Aren't you terrified?" Jack asked the Doctor, raising an eyebrow.

"Of what?"

"Mate, the missus and the ex. That is never a good combination."

"You should know." The Doctor threw back defensively.

"Actually, I know never to let two women I… _know_ meet."

"Well, I don't _know_ either of them in that respect. Rose and I… we never… and Martha is just my travelling companion. And she'll never be anything more than that. Anyway, what's the worst that could happen?"

Jack shook his head. Those words should never ever be said, especially by or around the Doctor. Both of them turned back to face the way they were walking, both of them stopping suddenly as they were confronted by Rose staring at the Doctor, arms crossed across her chest with a questioning look that terrified him more than almost anything ever had before.

"Who's Joan?" she asked in a carefully level voice.

The Doctor swallowed hard, his voice rising in pitch as he called over her shoulder to the fast-walking figure of the other woman. "Martha? Can I have a word?"

They turned a corner into a dark, foul smelling corridor. People dressed in filthy rags and smudged faces looked up at them from their positions, sitting the floor on either side of them.

"It's like a refugee camp." Martha said quietly.

"Stinking!" Jack said bluntly, his face contorted into a grimace. A large, burly man growled at him, lip curled in challenge, "Oh, sorry, no offence, not you."

"But don't you get it?" the Doctor said, ignoring the predicament the ex-Time Agent had got himself into, "The ripe old smell of humans, you survive! Oh, you might have spent a million years evolving into clouds of gas… and another as downloads," he gave Rose a significant look, "but you've always elected the same basic shape. The fundamental humans. End of the universe, here you are! Indomitable!" He threw his arms around both Martha's and Rose's shoulders, pulling them in for a brief hug, "That's the word! Indomitable!"

"Still goes on a bit, doesn't he?" Rose said to Martha, making the other woman laugh.

"You're telling me! Has he actually ever stopped talking?"

"Not in this body!"

All the time Creet and Padrafesh had been calling out the names of the man's family, when suddenly a woman stood up.

"That's me." Her eyes lit up, her hand coming up to cover her moth in shock.

"Mother!"

"Oh my God!" Kistane gasped as her son flung himself into her arms and his brother patted him on the back.

"It's not all bad news!" Martha said, a grin spreading across her face as she watched the happy reunion.

Jack, meanwhile, had already round his own interest.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he offered as an attractive man stood up, taking each others hands "and who are you?"

"Stop it!" both the Doctor and Rose warned at the same time.

Jack was about to argue until he saw that the Doctor was sonicking a keypad.

"Give us a hand with this. Half dead locks, see if you can override the code."

Jack patted the man's hand before going to help the Doctor, tapping in numbers while the Time Lord ran the sonic around the outside of the door. The stone started sliding open.

"Let's see where we are."

Just like the Doctor, he didn't look before he stepped out, so he didn't notice the sheer drop he was walking into. Luckily for him, both Rose and Jack, having both spent their time travelling with the Doctor and working in their respective Torchwoods, were there to grab him and pull him back.

"We've got you!" they said in unison.

"Thanks."

"How survive without us?" Rose said raising an eyebrow, to which the Doctor grinned.

"Now _that_ is what I call a rocket!" Martha said in awe.

"They're not as good as they make em' seem on telly." Rose scoffed, "I should know!"

"They're not refugees, they're passengers."

"He said they were going to Utopia." Rose offered.

"The perfect place. One hundred trillion years it's the same old dream." The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed together as he looked down towards the bottom of the huge rocket, "Do you recognise those engines?"

"Nope." Jack said, he being the only one that it could apply to, "What ever it is, it's not rocket science. It's hot though."

"Boiling."

Rose rolled her eyes. The Doctor, as ever, ignoring Jack's constant stream of innuendo.

The Doctor pulled back, everyone following suite.

"But if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean?" he asked, puzzlement etched into his features as a white haired old man came running out of nowhere at surprising speed. He stopped in front of them, pointing between the two men, undecided. His finger stopped in front of Jack.

"The Doctor?" he enquired.

"That's me!" the real Doctor said as Jack pointed.

The man's eyes lit up as he grabbed the Doctor's hand, "Oh good, good, good!"

"Good?" asked the Doctor as the man started pulling him away, the others following, quizzical looks passing between them.

"Good, good good good! Good!"

The Doctor turned to his companions, bemused grin playing across his face.

"Good apparently."

"Even at the end of the universe you're still a wanted man eh Doctor?" Rose joked, following closely.

As they speeded past, nobody noticed the woman who was watching them, her eyes narrowed as she bared her jagged, pointed teeth, hissing quietly. She had a job to do.

As they walked into the laboratory, the old man still dragging the Doctor after him, they were greeted by a woman who seemed to be part insect, her blue face kind, but accompanied by strange mandibles protruding from her jaw line and antenna from her forehead.

"Chan welcome tho!" she said brightly.

The Professor, however, ignored his work colleague's greeting, too anxious to get help from this mysterious "Doctor."

"This is the graventisimal accelerator…"

As the Doctor's companions entered the laboratory Chantho repeated,

"Chan welcome tho!"

"And over here is the footprint impellor system…" the Professor continued, dashing around the room, showing the Doctor random pieces of machinery.

"Um… hello?" Martha said uncertainly. "Who are you?"

"Chan Chantho tho."

"But we can't get it to harmonise…" the Professor continued.

"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack said, classic American grin in place.

"Stop it!" Rose and the Doctor warned again.

_Jack's on a roll today! _Rose thought, grinning and shaking her head.

"Can't I say hello to anyone?" Jack protested.

"No,' Rose supplied with a cheeky grin.

"Chan I do not protest tho!" Chantho argued.

"Maybe later blue." Jack winked suggestively.

"Not on my watch, Jack Harkness. This is why I came with you. To protect the universe from gigolo Jack."

Jack ignored her, walking past her and rubbing his hands together "So! What have we got here?"

"And all this feeds into the rocket?" the Doctor asked, looking surprisingly unsure.

"What's that?" Martha asked, following Jack down towards a seating area, leaving Rose watching the Doctor.

"Yes, except without a stable footprint we can never achieve escape velocity. If only we could… harmonise the five impact patterns and… unify them… we may yet make it." The Professor turned to face the Doctor hopefully, "what do you think Doctor? Any idea?"

"Well, _basically_," the Doctor said turning on the spot, "Sort of… not a clue."

The Professor looked at him, taken aback, "Nothing?"

"I'm not from around these parts, I've never seen a system like it" the Professor looked away sadly "I'm sorry."

"No no _I'm_ sorry. I've been so little help-"

"Oh my God!" Martha interrupted and everyone turned to look at her, Jack moving forward with an uncomfortable look on his face, "You've got a hand!" the Doctor ran over, sitting down as Martha put a small tank on the table in front of him. "A hand in a jar! A hand, in a jar, in your bag!"

"But that, that, that that's my hand!" the Doctor said, his voice rising a pitch or two.

"I said I had a Doctor Detector." Jack said calmly.

"Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?" Chantho asked, eyes wide.

"Not on my street, what do you mean that's your hand, you've got both your hands, I can see them."

"Long story. I lost my hand, Christmas day, in a sorta fight." The Doctor explained.

"What and you just… grew another hand?" Martha joked.

"Um… yeah, yeah yeah yeah!" he answered calmly, Martha's grin disappearing.

"God that hand of your's still gives me the creeps!" Rose put in, nodding to the Doctor's still attached hand.

"Hello!" he grinned cheekily, waggling his hands at both the girls. His grin was soon wiped off his face as Rose slapped him over the top of his head before turning to Jack.

"I always wondered what you were using to track him down. I thought it was your wrist… er… computer… erm."

"Vortex Manipulator?"

"That's it!"

"Come on Rosie, at least it's not as bad as Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Ya what?" Martha asked.

"You know when you asked about the earthquake in Cardiff, and I mentioned the Slitheen? " Martha nodded dumbly, "that's their planet."

"God do you remember that stink!" Jack laughed.

"What are you complaining about, you didn't have her bloody great claws around your throat! It's a good job I couldn't breathe, I think I would have passed out from the smell!" Rose laughed.

"Not as bad as Max!" the Doctor commented.

"Oh I'd forgotten Max!" Rose agreed, "Now _that_ was a long name!"

"Excuse me, what species are you?" the Professor asked.

"Time Lord." The Doctor said, sobering, "Last of." The Professor's and Chantho's faces looked vacant, the name meaning nothing to them, "Anyone? Anything?" they shook their heads, "Not even a myth, blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."

"Oh no, the Doctor's in a moody!" Rose said in a sing-song voice designed especially to test his nerves.

"I'm not… I do not get… I am not a moody person, thank you miss Tyler."

"Ha!" said both Jack and Rose before Jack continued, "First time I met you, you were in mood for a week 'cause I got to dance with Rose before you did!"

"Correction;" the Doctor conceded after a moment, "I'm not moody _anymore_."

"Chan it is said I am the last of my kind too tho."

"Sorry, what was your name?"

"My assistant," the Professor said quickly, "and good friend Chantho, a survivor of the Malmooth, this was their planet Baltazero, before we took refuge."

"The city outside, that was yours?" the Doctor asked.

"Chan the conglomeration died tho." She answered sadly.

"Conglomeration, that's what I said!" he sat back, his voice triumphant.

"Doctor," Rose said, "you're supposed to say sorry."

"Oh, yes," he suddenly looked serious, "sorry."

"Chan most grateful tho."

"You… grew another hand?" Martha asked, still stunned.

"Hello again." The Doctor said, waggling his fingers again, before ducking under Rose's hand as it flew over his head and sticking his tongue out at her.

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you really want to be doing that? You were lucky when your hand was chopped off, but I don't think you're gonna be able to grow that tongue back. So unless you want to find out, I'd put it away."

The Doctor looked like a little kid, withdrawing his tongue and shuffling his feet.

"Is Rose his companion or his mum?" Martha whispered to Jack.

"I think you were right before when you said they were like an old married couple."

Jack raised his voice, talking to the Professor.

"What about the things outside, the beastie boys? What are they?"

"We call them the Futurekind, which is a myth in itself. But it's feared that they are what we will become. Unless we find Utopia."

"And Utopia is…?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh every human knows of Utopia," the Professor laughed, "where have you been?"

"Bit of a hermit." The Doctor replied nonchalantly.

"Oh, a hermit? With, er, friends?" the Professor questioned.

"Hermits united." The Doctor replied, "We meet up, every ten years, talk about caves, it's good fun… for a hermit. So…um, Utopia is?"

The Professor raised an eyebrow, crooking a finger. He lead them to an ancient looking computer, inserting a disk. The screen was like ones Rose and Martha had seen in old films, black and green shapes swirling and disappearing. The Professor pointed to a dot that stayed, blinking.

"The call came from across the stars, over and over again; come to Utopia, originating from that point."

"Where is that?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, it's far beyond the condensed wilderness. Out towards the wild lands and the dark matter reefs, calling us in, the last of the humans, scattered across the night."

Rose watched the old man talking, listening to him carefully. The way he talked, she knew that he would make a fantastic storyteller. She suddenly felt as if she was back when she was six years old, sitting cross-legged in front of granddad Prentice's old chair, getting ready for another fairytale about princesses and dragons.

The Doctor's words brought her back to the real world, her eyes coming back into focus. Those days were long gone. She wasn't that little girl anymore. In fact she wasn't even that person anymore.

"What do you think's out there?"

"We cannot know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven. The science foundation set up the Utopia project, thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself, and perhaps they found it. Perhaps not." He leaned over dramatically, "But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

The Doctor grinned up at the older looking man, "Oh yes."

The Doctor's next words, however, were blocked out as the Professor's eyes went out of focus.

"Professor?" the Doctor said, noticing something wrong, but the word didn't even get through.

The drums.

They were back, but they were even louder than ever before.

"Professor?"

_Dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum._

"Professor?" finally the Doctor's words got through, bringing the Professor back to the world.

"Right," he said, shaking himself, "that's enough talk, there's work to do, so if you could leave, thank you?"

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, worry evident in his face.

"Yes, fine, and busy." The Professor assured him, walking over to his work station.

"Except…" the Doctor said, standing up, "that rocket's not gonna fly, is it? This footprint… mechanism… thing. It's not working.

"We'll find a way." The old man insisted.

"You're stuck on this planet." He moved forwards, leaning over a computer as realisation dawned, "and you haven't told them, have you? That lot out there, they still think they're gonna fly."

The Professor sat down heavily, downcast, "Well, it's better to let them live hope."

"Quiet right too!" the Doctor beamed, thumping his hand on the computer, making the Professor look up, "And I must say, Professor… what was it?"

"Yana."

"Professor Yana." He shook his arms out of his coat, Jack stepping forward to take hold of it and folding it over his arm, "This new science is way beyond me, but anyway, a boost reversal circuit, in any timeframe must be… a circuit that reverses the boost… so I wonder what would happen…" he took the equipment out of the man's hand, fishing in his inside pocket for the sonic screwdriver, "If I did this?"

He gave the thing a quick zap, before pulling a handle. Suddenly the laboratory was filled with the sound of an alarm blaring, red lights flashing.

"Chan it's working tho!" Chantho laughed joyfully, looking around.

"Well, how did you do that?" the Professor spluttered.

"Well, as we were chatting away I forgot to mention; I'm brilliant!"

"Not big-headed at all, is he?" Rose said sarcastically.


	4. Was Someone Kissing Me?

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Both above and below them thousands of humans gathered their meagre possessions, talking animatedly to each other. Finally they were to escape the dangers of living on the edge of nothingness. Finally they were going to the place that they all had been dreaming about for so many years. Padrafesh, Belto and Kistane Shefcaine walked over the thin metal bridge grinning to each other.

Back in the laboratory, everybody was working at a hectic race, Rose, Martha and Chantho following orders as quickly and efficiently. Turning her back to the rest, following the instruction the Doctor had just given her; Rose allowed herself a secret smile. It was so good to be back.

Outside the silo the last water collection truck passed through the gates, its' progress followed by the eyes of twenty leather-clad figures, hoping for a chance of feeding their starving bellies.

Far below Atillo looked at the red-lit room. It was strange to think that such an empty looking room could hold such danger, that it could evoke such fear in him. Behind him, his only real friend down here, Jake Mitchell was preparing to enter the Stet room, his hands shaking as he fastened the helmet onto his head and slid on his gloves.

Martha, Rose and Chantho walked down the corridor, pushing through the constant stream of people anxious to get to the rocket. The Professor had asked them to fetch more of the glass-like circuits that they had been working with before. They both saw a familiar blonde-haired head popping up a head of them.

"Hey, what was your name…?" Martha said, trying to remember the strange name she had heard used before, "Creet."

"That's right miss." Be answered brightly. Rose noticed a slight Scottish accent creeping through. Was there a Scottish planet, maybe?

"Who you with Creet? Got any family?"

"No miss, it's just me."

Martha's face fell in sympathy. Now she understood why he was working so young. He didn't have a choice.

"Oh," she replied sadly, "Well, good luck."

"What do you think it's gonna be like? In Utopia?" Rose asked, trying to lighten the conversation.

"My mum used to say the skies were made of diamonds."

"Good for her!" both Martha and Rose said, grinning at the way his little face lit up like the jewels that he was describing.

"Go on; get your seat." Martha laughed, ruffling the boy's hair affectionately.

As they walked on, neither the women, the boy or the last survivor of the Malmooth noticed the same woman with jagged teeth who had watched them being lead to the lab watching them, eyes narrowed. Time to get the plan underway.

Back at the laboratory, the Professor and the Doctor were working together on either sides of something the Professor called a "Nutrina map." It was basically a large, rectangular sheet of some transparent material, similar to either plastic or glass- like every other piece of technology so far. The Doctor sniffed. He had been putting in wires wherever the Professor told him when he had smelled something. He sniffed hi hands. It was something like food, though he hadn't eaten for at least an hour now. He picked up the wire he had just attached.

"Is that…?" he asked, gesturing to the Professor with the wire.

"Yeah," the Professor replied, nodding, "Gluten extracts. It binds the Nutrina map together."

"That's food." The Doctor said, awestruck, "You built this system out of food and string and staples." He took his glasses of, looking at the man in admiration, "Professor Yana, you are a genius!"

"So says the man who made it work." The scientist scoffed.

"Oh, it's easy coming in at the end but… you're stellar. This is… this is magnificent. And I don't often say that 'cause… well, 'cause of me."

"Well even my title is an affectation. There hasn't been such a thing as a university for," he thought, blowing out his cheeks, "over a thousand years. I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another."

"If you'd been born in a different time you'd be revered." The Professor laughed, raising an eyebrow at the idea. "I mean it! Throughout the galaxies."

"All those damn galaxies! They had to go and collapse. Some admiration would have been nice. Yes, just a little, just… once."

"Well, you've got it now." The Doctor smiled at his new friend. It was the strangest thing, but it felt like they already knew each other… as if they had been friends for years. There was the tiniest of niggles, right at the back of his head, just ticking his mind.

"But that footprint… engine… thing." He continued, shaking of the feeling, "You can't activate it from on board. It's got to be done from here. You're staying behind."

"With Chantho." He confirmed, "She won't go without me; simply refuses.

The Doctor concealed a small smile. A female companion who refused to leave someone behind. Now why did that sound familiar?

"You'd give your life so they could fly?" there was no surprise in his voice. Hadn't he done the same, so many times; given his life so that others could continue with theirs?

"I think I'm a little old for Utopia. So I might have some sleep."

The Doctor and the Professor looked at each other for a long moment, understanding flickering between them.

Both of men looked up as Atillo's voice was heard coming over the intercom system.

"Professor? Tell the Doctor we've found his blue box."

"Ohhh!" said the Doctor happily.

"Doctor?" Jack said from where he was standing on the other side of the lab where he was stripping wires for the others to use, pointing to the small surveillance screen in front of him as the Doctor ran over to look at his beautiful ship, followed by the Professor.

"Professor," he said, patting the man on the back, "it might be a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found your way out."

Little did he know that, as the old scientist looked at the grainy image on the screen, the drums in his head were getting louder and closer.

Finally finding the thick cable that he had been looking for under the metal-grille panelling that made up the flooring of the TARDIS, the Doctor's head popped up, dragging the cable with him as he hauled himself out.

"Extra power!" he said, bursting out of the blue wooden doors, and running over to another cable that he had found that could connect with the one from the TARDIS, "little bit of a cheat but who's counting?!"

There was the sound of energy building, accompanied by the doors to the lab opening as the three female companions walked in.

"Jack?!" the Doctor said, not noticing two of his friends walking in, "You're in charge of the retro feeds!"

"Oh am I glad to see that ship again!" Rose said loudly as she walked in, putting the circuits down and running over to the TARDIS and opening the door, looking into the place that had, for so long, such an age ago, been the place she called home. The lights of the control room lowered before coming up again, accompanied by a hum as the ancient ship recognised an important part of her life returning to her.

"Good to see you too my friend." Rose whispered fondly, stroking the panelled doors, "Thank you for saving me, and for keeping him safe while I was gone."

As she came back outside, closing the doors ajar because of the cable that snaked out from them, she noticed the Professor sitting down, Chantho standing in front of him.

"Chan Professor, are you alright tho?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She still looked worried, not moving, "I'm fine! Jus get on with it."

Rose moved forwards, picking up the circuits that she had put down before.

"Connect those circuits in the slot, same as the last lot." Jack said to her and the other women, "But quicker!"

Rose moved the circuits into one of her hands, raising a finger to her temple in mock salute and mimicking his American accent .

"Yes sir!"

Jack grinned at her, waggling his eyebrows at her.

"You know I like it when you call me sir." He said.

Rose rolled her eyes, "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times Jack; it's never gonna happen. Not on earth and not here."

Jack gave her a mock-wounded look, holding his chest as if she'd shot him before getting on with his work.

The Doctor moved over to where the Professor was sitting, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to keep working, we can handle it."

The Professor shook his hand. "It's just a headache, it's just… noise inside my head Doctor, constant noise inside my head."

The Doctor knelt down, gaining eye level "What sort of noise?"

The Professor sighed heavily, "It's the sound of drums. More and more as though… it's getting closer."

"When did it start?"

"Oh, I've had it all my life. Every waking hour. Still," he said cheerily, slapping his hands down on his legs and leaning to the Doctor, "No rest for the wicked!"

The Doctor gave a lopsided smile, watching the Professor walk away before his eyes found the three women huddled together talking and working, cold fear rising inside him. Two women talking was a bad omen; three was like seeing the Grim Reaper.

"So how long have you been with the Professor?" Martha asked Chantho as they worked.

"Chan seventeen years tho." She replied.

"Blimey, long time." Rose said, handing her another circuit to install.

"Chan I adore him tho." She said, before suddenly looking uncomfortable, realising she had said too much.

The two other women shared a knowing glance.

"Oh right, and he…" Martha prompted.

"Chan I don't think he even notices me tho."

"Tell me about it." Martha and Rose said at the same time.

"Chan but I am happy to serve tho."

"Do you mind if I ask," Martha said, curiosity finally getting the better of her, "do you have to start every sentence with "Chan""

"Chan yes tho." She replied, looking as if it should be obvious.

"And end every sentence with…"

"Chan tho, tho."

"What would happen if you didn't?"

"Martha!" Rose hissed before saying to Chantho; "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

"Chan no miss, it's alright tho. Chan that would be rude tho."

Martha looked around, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "What like swearing?"

Chantho looked around, lowering her voice to match Martha's "Chan indeed tho!"

"Oh go on, just once!" Martha encouraged.

"Chan I can't tho!"

"Oh do it for us!"

Rose sent her a look, unnoticed by Chantho.

"Nn-no!" she stuttered before tittering giddily as Rose and Martha smiled as well.

Down in the launch centre beside the Stet chamber Atillo tried to talk to the Professor through the computer on his desk.

"Professor?" the screen looked like a snow storm aside from the thin strip of yellow at the bottom of the screen. "Systems are down…"

He typed slowly the word Yana as the Professor had shown him long ago. He had spent most of his life on one refugee camp or another and, somehow, he had never got around to getting a proper education, so he couldn't read or write very well. Luckily he had risen to a job that didn't require very high literary skills, just a knack with computers.

"Professor are you getting me?"

Suddenly the image came into focus, the man's face anxious. His discomfort with talking to a computer screen, as ever, was obvious.

"I'm here, we're ready! Now, all you need to do is… collect the cup links. Then we can launch." At the Professor's final words the image cut out again.

"For God's sake, this blasted equipment!" the Professor shouted, Martha appearing at his shoulder as he flung his arms in anger. "It needs rebooting all the time!"

"Anything I can do, I've finished that lot?" Martha offered helpfully.

"Yes, if you could," He stood up, offering her the chair and pointing to keyboard, "just press the reboot key every time the picture goes."

"Certainly sir, just don't ask me to do short hand." Martha replied, making the Professor laugh as he patted her on the shoulder.

As she pressed the button, Atillo's face appeared.

"Are you still there?"

Ah, present and correct! Send your man inside, we'll keep the levels down from here.

Atillo stood up, opening the door for Jake and giving him an encouraging nod. He closed the door behind him, watching him in fear through the small glass window of the door.

Atillo's face came back into view.

"He's inside."

"Captain, keep the dials below the red." The Professor said to Jack, the man nodding in acknowledgement.

The Doctor looked at the screen, taking out his glasses and placing them on his nose as the picture flicked to a red-lit room.

"Where is that room?" he asked, his brow furrowed.

"It's underneath the rocket." The Professor explained, "Attach the cup links and the footprint can work. But the entire chamber's flooded with Stet radiation."

"Stet, never heard of it." He said, ignoring Rose's snort from behind him. Oh how she was enjoying the one time the Doctor didn't know everything.

"Oh you wouldn't want to." The Professor said, either copying the Doctor in ignoring Rose or he hadn't heard her, "But it's safe enough, we can… hold back the radiation from here."

They watched in silence for a moment as the man inside the chamber attached the first cup link carefully. Jake looked up to his friend, both breathing a sigh of relief.

"It's rising…" said the Professor as a quiet alarm sounded, "nought-point-two, keep it steady."

Back in the room beneath the rocket Jake felt sweat dribbling down his face as he typed in the code that he had been told by Atillo.

Above them, in the control centre, the Futurekind woman ran in, hissing and looking around. She ran to a metal box marked; "Hazard" in capital letters, but then she had never learned to read. She pulled the door open and turned all the switches to off.

Another alarm sounded, louder and more urgent.

"Chan we're loosing power tho!" Chantho said, looking around in fear as Jack put his hands on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

The third box that she came to, the crazed woman couldn't find any switched to throw, so she searched for something to use. Her eyes alighted on a computer sitting on a desk. She ran over, picking up the monitor without unplugging it and throwing it at the main power box.

People were running around the lab, throwing switches, pressing buttons, yelling instructions. Martha went to help, but Rose pulled her back, shaking her head.

"The only thing we're gonna do is get in the way. Just stand back."

Martha went to argue, but closed her mouth. She was right.

"Jack?!" the Doctor yelled across the room, flinging circuits into sockets and attaching wires all over the place. "Override the vents!"

Up above no-one could hear Atillo's yells at his friend, banging his hand on the door as the lights flickered and the alarm sounded.

"Get out of there!" he was yelling as Jake looked around, but continued working, sweat now flowing freely down his face. "Get out of there! Jake!"

The Futurekind woman laughed madly, the room filled with flames, bathing her in a flickering light that made her look as if she was in the centre of hell. Her leader would reward her most greatly; perhaps even make her his mate, so then she would have the best pickings of the rare meals that they had.

"Oi you!" came a voice from behind her as two soldiers came running down the stairs, rifles levelled. Too late her smile faded, too late for her to hide her giveaway teeth and she felt searing pain as the rifles cracked, bullets peppering her body before she fell into the flames.

Jack suddenly pulled two cables from the monitors, sparks flying as an idea struck him.

"We can jumpstart the override." And with that he brought the sparking cables together and screamed as electricity coursed through his body.

"Don't, it's gonna…" warned the Doctor too late, his words blocked out by the horribly, blood curdling screams of his ex-companion before Jack finally let go of the wires, letting them fall to the floor before following them. Martha ran forward, her medical training speeding her into action.

Nobody but Atillo saw as Jake Mitchell looked up, faint look on his face, his eyes drooping as vertigo took hold. For a split second he looked into his friend's face, before his eyes closed and his body became nothing more than a suit full of ashes. As he fell, his heavy suit fell against the cup links, closing the lid of the one he had just opened, but Atillo didn't notice as he screamed Jake's name, crying for his fallen companion.

"I've got him!" Martha said, kneeling down beside Jack's head.

"Chan don't touch the cables tho!" warned Chantho, grabbing the cable a safe distance away from the end and pushing it away.

"I'm so sorry." The Professor said sadly, leaning down as Martha tilted Jack's head to give him mouth to mouth, holding his nose as she tried to resuscitate him.

"The chamber's flooded with radiation." Said the Doctor, remarkably impassive about his friend dying, instead looking to the now empty chamber, nothing but a white all-in-one lying on the floor to show that anyone had ever been in there.

"Without the cup links, the engine will never start." Replied the Professor, shaking his head sadly "It was all for nothing!"

"Oh I don't know." The Doctor said nonchalantly , noticing Rose standing with her back against the wall, arms crossed, equally unmoved, watching Jack lying motionless on the floor. The Doctor moved forward, standing over Martha, "Martha, leave him."

He gently took hold of Martha's arms and pulled her away, shushing her.

"You've got to let me try!" she begged, struggling against his surprisingly strong arms.

"C'mon, C'mon, just listen to me." He said, standing her up, her eyes flicking between the face of the ex-Time Agent lying at her feet and the Time Lord. "Now leave him.2 he turned to the Professor, "Strikes me Professor, you've got a room which no man can enter with out dying, is that correct?"

"Yes." Nodded the old man in a hopeless voice.

"Well," the Doctor said a slight smile appearing, taking his glasses off as Jack gasped and Martha's eyes shot wide, staring at him in awe, "I think I've got just the man."

Jack looked around at all the people now staring at him.

"Was someone kissing me?" he panted as Rose rolled her eyes.

"Good to see your priorities are in the right order there Jack." She said walking over to him and poking him with her foot.


	5. The Truth Comes Out

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Jack and the Doctor ran through the corridors of the silo, side by side, flinging themselves down any stairs that they came to at a break-neck speed and turning the corners sharply. They turned the final corner to find Atillo holding his head in his hands, eyes closed tight, but snapping open as he heard them enter.

"Lieutenant!" the Doctor yelled placing his hand on the grieving man's shoulder. "Get aboard the Rocket, I promise you're gonna fly!"

"The chamber's flooded! Jake-"

"Trust me," the Doctor pleaded, "we've found a way of tripping the system."

The man looked at him for a second, swallowing his grief.

"When he fell, he knocked the second cup link closed. You have to open it for the system to work." He said.

"Thank you. Now run!" the Doctor urged the man before looking at the wall of technology in front of him, digging into his jacket pocket, searching for the sonic screwdriver before he saw a flash of white out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see Jack stripping of his coat and unbuttoning his blue shirt, revealing a white t-shirt underneath.

"Wha… why are you taking your clothes off?"

"I'm going in." said Jack, as if it was obvious.

"Well by the looks of it, Stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh."

"Well," he said, pulling his braces up over his shoulders and putting his hands on his hips, "I'll look good though."

He ran to the door and grabbed the handle, sliding it open the slightest bit, before turning to look at the Doctor.

"How long have you known?" he asked.

"Ever since I ran away from you." He replied, his eyes never wavering from Jack's face. "Good luck."

Jack nodded, opening the door and closing it straight after himself he turned to the room. As he moved, his arm touched the concrete wall and he winced as he heard and felt his flesh hissing as it came into contact with the build up of radiation that had made an invisible layer on the grey stone. He shook his arm and walked towards the cup links in the centre of the room, before looking around the room. He wasn't dead.

Back in the lab Martha, Chantho and the Professor stared at the blizzard currently showing on the small computer screen.

"We lost picture after that thing flared up." Martha said, clicking the reboot key to no avail. "Doctor, are you there?"

"Receiving, yeah. Inside." Said the Doctor.

Martha raised her eyebrows, looking around to her fellow listeners, "and still alive?"

"Oh yes!"

"He should evaporate." Said the Professor in an incredulous voice, "What sort of a man is he?"

"I've only just met him." Martha said, shaking her head.

"The Doctor sorta… travels through time and space, picking people up." Rose explained for the others.

"God," Martha laughed, "you make us sound like stray dogs!"

"Maybe… to him we are."

She gently took hold of Martha's arm, guiding her away from the microphone.

"Listen, Martha," she whispered, "I'm going down there. I need to talk to the Doctor, I have to tell him something. But… just do one thing for my, yeah?" Martha nodded in answer, understanding the urgency in the older woman's face. "When I say, can you turn the comms off? Please. No offence but it's something that I want to tell him and him alone. Jack already knows, but I can't keep this thing bundled up any longer. Will you do that?"

"Sure" Martha said, nodding and smiling, "'course I will."

"Thank you." Rose said, turning to leave before turning back and saying, "And thank you; for looking after him when I wasn't. You were there to hold his hand and for that I owe you so much. I wish that I could have found someone to be there for me." She pulled the younger woman into a tight hug, which Martha returned happily.

"See ya in hell!" Rose said, before cringing. "I have spent _way_ too much time with Jack."

Down in the Stet chamber, Jack had started typing in the thirteen digit code that the Professor had told him to use as the Doctor leaned against the table outside, looking through the thick glass in the door at him.

"When did you realise?" he asked calmly. It was easier to talk to Jack like this, each of them standing on the opposite sides of a door. The itch in his head was toned down to a mere tickle.

"Earth, 1892. Got into a fight on Alice Island. A man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up." The Doctor raised his eyebrows, not noticing the light footsteps behind him as Rose hid just around the corner, close enough to hear all that was said but remaining unseen herself, "Thought that was kinda strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War One, World War Two, poison, starvation… stray javelin."

"Ooh!" the Doctor said sincerely as Rose suppressed a small smile. That was one work sports day she'd rather forget.

"In the end," he pulled open the lid to the cup link, moving on to the next, "I got the message; I'm the man who can never die. And all that time you knew."

"That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just… just looking at you Jack 'cause you're wrong."

"Thanks." Jack replied sarcastically, still typing in numbers.

"You are I can't help it. I'm a Time Lord, it's instinct. It's in my guts. You're a fixed point in time and space, you're a fact. And that's never meant to happen. Even the TARDIS reacted against you, tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe to try and get rid of you."

"So what you're saying is you're…" he paused, raising an eyebrow as he opened the lid of the cup link, "Prejudice?"

"I'd never thought of it like that." The Doctor grinned, face thoughtful.

"Shame on you." Jack said, turning the top of the cup link. Then he notice Rose stepping out from around the corner, letting him know she was there.

"Yep." Said the Doctor, rubbing his eye, not noticing Jack's attention was on something behind him.

Rose smiled at Jack, putting a finger to her lips to tell him not to say she was there, but gesturing that he should carry on talking as he had been.

"I just wanna know." Jack said, drawing his eyes back to the Doctor, "last thing I remember, back when I was mortal. I was facing three Daleks; death by extermination. Then I came back to life." The cup link fell into place, "What happened?"

"Rose."

At the mention of her name Rose froze, eyes wide. What did he mean by that?

Jack kept his eyes on the Doctor, knowing it would give the game away to look at her when the Time Lord's eyes were focused on him so profoundly.

"I thought you sent her back home."

"She came back. She always comes back." There was the tiniest of underlying admiration in his soft voice, "Every time I send her away, no matter how terrible the danger is, she always comes back for me. She opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex itself.

"What does that mean exactly?" Jack pressed, typing the next code into the keypad.

"No-one's ever meant to have that power. If a Time Lord did that he'd become a God, a vengeful God. But she was human."

Rose shook her head as half remembered memories, hazed by a golden mist. She saw herself as if from another person's point of view. Her eyes shone gold as if she were a Goddess. She said three words; "I bring life," and then the image changed to Jack, sitting on the floor, slumped against a wall, suddenly gasping to life like she had seen him do so many times since.

"Everything she's ever done has been… so human." The Doctor was saying, keeping her connected to the real world as memories of music that defied age, of images that had for so long been hidden from her now flashed through her head, more and more and more, threatening to overwhelm her. "She brought you back to life. But she couldn't control it; she brought you back forever." The Doctor breathed deep, leaning against the door, eyes still focused on Jack. "That's something I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."

"Could she change me back?" Jack asked, opening the lid to the third cup link.

"I took the power out of her Jack. I thought she was gone Jack. Up until today I didn't think there was any way to find her again. It was… so hard. Time Lords aren't supposed to fall for humans. That's why I was harsh when I met her for the first time, in my last regeneration. She took me; a broken, bitter old man and she made me whole again. But when I lost her… I was left in tatters. Martha and Donna… they were there to help me gather the pieces. They were there to stop me."

"Stop you?" Jack asked, pausing in his job, "Stop you from what?"

"From loosing it. If Rose had seen me the day I lost her…" he cleared his throat, looking at the floor, "I faced the Empress of the Racnoss. She begged me… but I wouldn't stop. I killed her, Jack. Her and her children. Donna kept telling me to stop, but it… it didn't seem right that… life should go on while I just wanted it to end. If Rose had seen what I became after I lost her she would have ran away. Ran away and never looked back."

"I'm not running now am I?" Rose said, making her presence made. The Doctor span around, eyes wide in shock.

"Rose! I thought… you weren't meant to…"

"They don't need me up there. Martha knows what to do," she raised her voice to the microphone on the computer, "Dontcha Martha?"

"No problem. See ya later, yeah." Martha said before there was a definite click as the comms went off.

"Your mind's slipping Doctor." Rose smiled gently, "You forgot to turn the mic off. We could hear every word."

The Doctor looked at her, their eyes meeting properly for the first time. It was then that he saw it. The darkness, swirling around and around inside her eyes. A darkness he only saw in one other place; his own, whenever he dared to look in the mirror.

"Rose," he asked, the tiniest of hints of a tremor in his voice, "what's going on?"

"Haven't you been wondering how it is I got here? How I got to this universe when you said that it was impossible? How I survived all the way through the vortex when it should have killed me? Aren't you wondering _why_ you never thought to ask all these obvious questions?"

He thought. Why had he not asked. Surely it should have been his first reaction, to make sure she told him everything, but instead he had accepted her simple "wait til later."

"Fine, then I'm asking now." He said, voice rising in anger with himself, "Tell me what's going on."

"Do you remember," Rose said suddenly, changing the subject, "before you asked how long it had been, and I just answered that it had been too long." She cocked her head to the side, surveying him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable, "How long do you think it's been? Look at me and tell me what you think."

"Rose why are you acting like this?"

"Just answer the question Doctor!" she demanded, her voice suddenly sharp.

He looked at her, genuine worry rising in him now. She had never talked to him like this before. He didn't think she had even ever talked like this full stop. She was staring at him, her body tense and a look that meant that there was no way that anything he said was going to make her back down.

He looked away from her eyes, instead drawing his attention to her face and her body, trying to gauge the differences from the last time he saw her. She was slightly thinner and she looked more comfortable in herself that before; defiantly a woman now, rather than a late teen.

"Last time I saw you," he said stiffly, "you were about nineteen or twenty, am I right?"

She simply nodded, eyes boring into him, holding her breath as she waited for his answer.

"Now you look around about twenty two, so about… two or three years."

She sighed, looking away and rubbing her face as she laughed humourlessly. "If only."

"Rose, why are you like this, talking in riddles?"

She turned back to him with such childlike vulnerability in her eyes that made his hearts stop.

"Because I'm scared that… what I tell you will make _you_ want to run away and never look back"

"Rose…" he whispered, his voice barely audible as he walked closer to her, ready to pull her into a hug.

She stopped him by putting a finger to his lips, before looking away, down his body to his hand, which she took hold of by the wrist and bringing it up to hover above her chest, looking back at his face, silver tears glistening in her darkened eyes.

"Rose?" he asked nervously, "What are you…"

"Just…" she closed her eyes, two diamond-like tears sliding down her cheeks as she brought his hand to rest in the middle of her chest. Then he felt it.

_Bum-bum-bum-bum_.

His eyes widened in shock, realisation finally dawning.

"That's not possible."

There he could feel two hearts, their beats overlapping in a mad drum roll.

"Not _probable_, I think you should say." She smiled weakly, dropping his wrist and stepping away.

"What's happened to you?"

"Pretty much the same as Jack, only I got the Time Lord bundle." She laughed half-heartedly. "You guessed at about two or three years…" she breathed deep before sighing, "try thirty."

"No…" he said quietly, "no, no I would have known sooner."

"That's the thing! They couldn't _let_ you know."

"Who?"

"You see," she continued as if she hadn't heard him, her eyes slightly distant, her voice very slow and childlike, "I'd forgotten. They didn't want me to have the burden of knowing all the things I'd done, all the trouble I'd caused. They locked it away somewhere I'd never find it. But… as you were talking, it all came back. Everything returned to me. You'd sent me away, back home to my life of chips and buses and Eastenders. But I knew… I _knew_ that I had to get back to you. I couldn't just… just leave you there to die, that I couldn't just sit back and get on with my life because…" her eyes came into focus as she looked up at him, her voice wavering slightly, "because you were my life."

The Doctor found himself breaking away from her gaze, unable to maintain it for longer than a few seconds.

"Mum and Mickey… they… they helped me to open the control panel, though that bit's rather hazy. All I can remember is the doors slamming closed as I looked into the heart of the Time Vortex. You can't imagine it Doctor, the bright light of time the searing flood of it coursing through my veins. As I looked into the heart of the TARDIS… and she looked into me, two figures appeared in my mind.

"The first was a beautiful woman, her hair flowing around her head like a Goddess, her eyes were the most piercing blue that seemed to look right through me, into my very soul, making me feel as if I was a naked child in front of her, but her arms were raised, as if she was waiting for me to run into them. At her side was a golden wolf, lying beside her, its' paws crossed, its eyes fixed on me. The woman spoke to me, her voice like music. "What are you doing child?" she asked. I answered her that I was going to save the Doctor. She smiled at that, bowing her head and saying "Yes he means to you as much as he means to me, doesn't he?" she looked down to the wolf, who stood up and bared its' teeth, but I somehow knew that it wasn't threatening me, but smiling. "Why?" it asked, "Why risk your life for a man who you barely even know?" I answered because I…" she looked at the Doctor uncertainly, but he was refusing to look into her eyes, so she took a deep breath and continued "because I love him with every part of my existence, and that if I had to die so that he could survive then… my life was a small price to pay."

The Doctor looked up suddenly, his eyes wide. Except for that time on the beach, she had never really admitted her feelings for him, and he had told himself that she couldn't possibly meant it and that she had said it on the spur of the moment, because it was the last chance to say it, or that she had perhaps said it in a friend love sense, but here she was saying that she would happily give her life for him to survive.

"Rose…"

"No!" she said firmly, "If I don't finish this now I… I never will."

He opened his mouth to argue, but the look of pure desperation made him close his mouth and nod silently.

She nodded her thanks, closing her eyes for a second.

"The woman; the TARDIS, she looked at me, her eyes so sad, and said to me "My child… you can't stay with him forever. For you… forever is impossible." And I answered that I didn't care. I said that I would stay with him for as long as was possible, or for as long as he wished me to stay. When I said that they both nodded. The wolf jumped at me, joining my body and the TARDIS guided my mind in what had to be done. She gave me the power to turn the Daleks to dust with a wish and a wave of my hand. The wolf whispered in my ear that Jack was dead, fallen in battle, and I undid what had been done. But the power… it was so… so strong, I… I could see everything that every would, what never could, what had and what might have, on every planet, in every universe, from the start of this universe to the end and the start of the next. Mirror reflecting mirror, going on for eternity and further.

"But the power… I couldn't let go, it was burning out my mind, it couldn't withstand. And then you," she looked at the Doctor, something of the wolf sparking in her eyes as tears flowed freely down her face, her entire body shaking in fear of her own actions, "You gave your life for mine, like I had been willing to do for you. You kissed me, and as they were about to leave me, the wolf and the woman asked me one last question; "If you had the chance to become his eternal companion, would you take it?"" She closed her eyes, swallowing hard, "and I said yes."

The room was silent for a long moment, Rose's tears falling soundlessly as she sank down the wall, coming to sit on the cold floor, holding herself as her body trembled, finally putting into words something that she herself she hadn't known until a few minutes ago. Jack realised with a jump that he had stopped in his task of attaching the cup links, looking down at his hand clamped tightly around the handle. The Doctor looked down at her sitting on the floor, his own body shaking, though not as violently as Rose's. He moved over to the wall beside her, sliding down to sit next to her and putting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him. She looked up at him, the slightest of gasps escaping her lips. He nodded, showing that he was alright with it, so she buried her face in his shoulder.

After a few moments silence, aside from the dull thump as Jack attached the third cup link and the sound of both of their double heartbeats slowing to normal in their chests. Rose breathed deep, revelling in the scent that was so the Doctor, something that she always thought of in her most terrible times of need. She swallowed hard, clearing her throat before pulling back a little, making sure to stay within his embrace.

"You see, the reason you didn't know was because they wanted me to stay with you. They didn't want you to be left alone, and they knew that if you realised that I was the same as Jack then you'd leave me behind, like you left Jack. They knew that you cared for me more than you let me know, but they also knew that it wouldn't make a difference. So they waited for a time when they had to act to change me."

"What happened?" the Doctor asked softly, dreading the answer.

"I told you… back in Norway. I told you that I was working at Torchwood. I moved up the hierarchy quickly, got to head of alien liaisons within a year, though still working in the field. Dad made sure of that. But the thing with my Torchwood, as opposed to the one in this universe, we're a lot more… shall we say… hands on. We work with aliens and objects that have fallen to Earth, without being the reason that they fell."

"Glad to see that I've been of some help in making at least one Earth a little less hostile." The Doctor said proudly, dropping a light kiss on her hair.

"The only problem with that approach, "Rose said, smiling as her hearts did a back flip, "is that it's a lot more dangerous. Have you ever met a Weevil?"

"A what?"

"A Weevil? One of the ugliest creatures ever to walk either universes."

"I don't think so."

"Sorta like… what was it… the thing from the red bucket, blue bucket, running-through-the-corridors-like-we-were-in-Scooby-Doo fiasco."

"The Hoix?" the Doctor suggested.

"That's it, the Hoix." She shivered at the memory, "Then again, if I could choose, I think I'd take the Hoix any day. At least I know which bucket to use. It was the blue right?"

"Not blue, never blue, how many times do I have to tell you, never ever use the blue bucket unless I tell you!"

"Okay, okay I get it, not blue, not blue!" she laughed. "Anyway, about two years the job we were investigating all these murders that had been going on around London. They were nasty, people being found literally ripped to pieces," she shivered, trying to rid herself of the images of all the victims, "Well, I wasn't supposed to go in on my own, but I didn't listen. I thought if I could actually talk to this thing then I might be able to stop it. You've got to realise that at the time, I didn't know what it was; not really. Anyway, as you can imagine, liaisons didn't go very well. Out popped the weevil, ripped out my throat and ran straight into dad's bullet."

"I'm so sorry Rose."

"Hey, don't blame yourself. It was me who gave blondes a bad name. That's the last time I don't listen to daddy." She smiled, putting on a brave face over the thought of her messy demise. "So anyway, that was the first time that I knew about, until a few minutes ago of course, that the woman and the wolf came to me. I knew that I was dead, everything was dark, and I felt as if I was falling, on and on, down and down until suddenly… everything stopped. Then they came back to me, blindingly bright. "This is not your time to die." They said, "You will meet him again, the Doctor, the way will show itself to you when you need it most." Then I woke up in dad's arms, lying in a pool of my own blood. They couldn't explain how it had happened, said that my throat had healed itself. They took me to the infirmary in Torchwood. This guy called Owen Harper checked me over, found what he called a "self-regenerating genetic imprimatur" in my blood, which meant that when ever I get injured, the tissue sorts itself out."

"Yeah, I have that in my blood, but I'm guessin' yours will be different, otherwise you'd regenerate every time."

"At least my way I don't have to get a new driving licence all the time." She grinned.

"Oh, I didn't know you could drive."

"I couldn't last time you saw me. I went back to school, passed my exams and learned to drive. Go me eh?"

"I always knew you could do it if you put your mind to it." The Doctor said proudly.

"Anyway, when he was examining me, Owen also noticed what sounded like a heart murmur, but when he scanner me it turned out not to be a murmur, or a tumour, but a second heart. You see, that was one of the ways that she could hide how I was from you, but she'd also put something else in my blood that Owen found, but he couldn't work out what it was. She told me later that it was like a perception filter, but it pretty much only worked on you. That's why you haven't been asking as many questions as you should be." She laughed suddenly, "It's a good job you weren't there when mum found out about the two hearts thing. I'd told, her back on your first Christmas like you are now, I'd said that you had two hearts. She properly saw red, saying if she ever saw you again she'd knock your…" she trailed off slightly, looking away as her face fell.

"What's happened Rose?"

"She died. Mum died, years and years ago."

"How?"

"Have you ever read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy?"

The Doctor searched his mind, looking over his long life and all the countless books that he'd read, "I don't think so."

"Well, it's about this little girl called Lyra who lives in a parallel world to ours where your soul is projected as an animal called a dæmon, but they sorta manifest themselves as something that resembles your personality, so say you were a servant, your dæmon would be a dog, 'cause you like following orders."

"Is this going somewhere?"

"Yes!" she said, before looking up to see him smiling and realised he was only teasing her, "Stop it, it's not funny. You see, her uncle, who turns out to be her father, he opens the way into another universe, where she meets this boy called Will, whose from our universe, so you can't see his dæmon, but anyway, he's the only person who can use the Subtle Knife, which is this knife that can cut windows into other worlds. But the reason I brought it up is because Mickey gave it to me, because it sounded like what happened with you and me. Trouble making little girl meets a boy who seems older than he actually is who can take her to fantastic new worlds, but then they find out that they can't stay together, because if you stay in another universe from your own, then your dæmon gets weaker and weaker until you die."

"You mean…?"

"Yeah. To start when mum and Mickey started getting these dizzy spells, but later it got worse and worse. I think travelling with you helped Mickey to keep going, but I don't know any more. But after mum died, I knew that I couldn't stay there, 'cause it was the place that had taken her from me. I cried every night for weeks, wishing that the TARDIS and the wolf would come for me, until, about three weeks after mum died, they came to me. They said that all I had to do was search for you and the TARDIS with my mind. You see, remember back at Canary Wharf, you were explaining about the way void stuff was attracted to the void, and I said it was like background radiation, the way you just picked it up by travelling through the void, only the thing is, when I said it I didn't realise how right I was. Of course that alone wasn't enough, otherwise you'd have all your old companions turning up all over the show. But when I had looked into the heart of the TARDIS, even though you'd tried to get rid of it, you'd missed a bit. It had burrowed right into the centre of my brain, but it wasn't enough to do me any damage, I'd never have even noticed it if I hadn't got separated from you. But there was another thing that your ship had done so that I could come back to you.

"You see, back on the beach, as you were saying goodbye and sealing the breach, your beautiful, magnificent ship had seen her chance. You see, you'd worked it out perfectly, you would have had enough time to finish that sentence you'd started, but the TARDIS had been forced to close it. You see, she left the tiniest of cracks open, not enough to fracture the breach or to destroy both universes, and small enough so that you'd never have noticed it, but big enough for me to use it one day. So I said goodbye to dad and Mickey and John, then left. Chiswick?"

"What?" asked the Doctor, surprised by her sudden change in subject.

"Chiswick? You said earlier that you'd asked Donna to come with you, but she'd decided to go back home to Chiswick. That's where I woke up, lying in the snow with this red-head screaming bloody murder that she was sick of bloody aliens and when I asked her what she meant she mentioned that you'd just left, thank you very much, and slammed the door in my face. Luckily the flat was still empty, and I'd brought plenty of money, so, two weeks later I found myself working for Jack in Torchwood, Cardiff."

"Wait a minute," the Doctor said suddenly, standing up and looking through the glass window, "You work for Torchwood?!"

"Thanks for remembering me, took you long enough!" Jack shot back, still working on the cup link.

"You work for the corporation that took my Rose away from me?"

"Doctor, stop it, it's not like that!" Rose said standing up and moving in front of the door, "Jack's Torchwood is the same way as mine. I'd never have worked for it if it wasn't. And anyway, since when was I ever "your Rose"?"

The Doctor looked suddenly very uncomfortable, swallowing hard and biting his lip slightly.

"Anyway." Rose said, leaving her question hanging. "I worked there as long as I had to until Jack got a signal on his you detector and we legged it and jumped on the TARDIS."

"Ahh…" the Doctor sighed slowly, "That's why she was being so weird on the way in."

"What do you mean?"

"When we came in she kept jumping time frames, flicking between 2007, the year we were before, and further and further into the future. She wanted rid of Jack, but she wanted to keep you safe as well. Rassilion, how I love that ship."

"Right then. So anyway…" Rose said, rolling her eyes, "You gonna tell me about this "My Rose" business?"

If the Doctor had been planning on saying anything, however, he was cut of as the final cup link fell into place and the alarms started.


	6. Rose Tyler Roams the Earth

Okay, this is the follow up story to Utopia, My way

**Okay, this is the follow up story to Utopia, My way. It's not going to have the whole story: just the beginning and from when the Master comes down the street to find her. I was originally going to have the full story, but I think you'll probably fin it a bit boring. It follows the main episode's story line, but with a few changes which will sometimes make you laugh, and other's I hope will make you cry, and some that will make you cheer.**

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**Hopefully. Anyway, hope you enjoy. Reviews are love, and make for faster updates. And I mean that. You could have the rest of the story by tonight, if you lovely readers feel like encouraging this moody teen. smiles winningly and flutters eyelashes prettily**

Rose Tyler roams the Earth

Rose Tyler lay awake on the floor of a small, crowded room, staring at the ceiling and listening to the people in the house around her, moving and breathing quietly in their sleep. It had been a long time since she had last slept, the night before that defining day in the deserted factory… the weevil attack, when that ungodly creature tore her former life away in its' jaws. Ever since then she had spent countless nights trying to over come this sudden attack of insomnia until she finally gave up, working in Torchwood for as many hours as her boss and her mother would allow. She could almost laugh at that; something that the movies never seemed to mention; immortality equals no sleep. But it was nice to have somewhere safe to stay the night. Most major cities were impossible to cross in the night, patrolled by either Toclafane or wild dogs. Even if she couldn't die, she didn't much fancy getting caught by the Master's metal soldiers or getting her throat ripped out. Again.

But she knew that in some ways she was lucky. During her travels across this broken planet, she had become something of a legend. People in every country talked of the Great Rose Tyler, a woman who was meant to be dead who was the only person who could kill the Master. Rose Tyler, they said, she's gonna save the world. The legend gave hope to the peoples of the Earth, spreading the globe. People whispered of her travels, claimed to have seen her. It also meant that people gladly offered to let her stay the night, to share their rations if they could. And that was how she had come to be lying on the floor of a cramped living space, way too small for all the people who were living there, but any houses that could be spared had been torn down to be used to make the Master's mighty fleet. The house was in France, close to where the great Eiffel Tower had once stood, before it too had been hacked down to be melted and taken to Russia, or Shipyard number one as most now knew it. Soon the Master was going to initiate his plans, firing over 200,000 rockets into a war to put the one that had destroyed his people and his planet to shame; a war that would leave the entire universe looking to him for help and to leave him in charge.

It was in moments like these, when all was quiet and she was safe, that her mind turned to darker thoughts. These were one of the reasons that she hadn't let herself sleep even a little these days. Evil thoughts were hardly ever from her mind as it was, but in dreams there were twisted and warped until she awoke, screaming, tears and sweat pouring down her face, putting herself and others at risk. Nightmares of the things she had seen in her travels; images of Japan, people screaming and running; women carrying children being sliced down in their tracks; and when it was over, a landscape of fire, blackened and burned arms rising from the sea of bodies, the last of the screams finally over, and Rose had been forced to watch helplessly as the Toclafane searched for any metal that they could find; removing wedding rings and tooth fillings, caring nothing for the people that they belonged to.

But her mind had escaped from these thoughts tonight. She thought instead of how this had ended up as it had.

'Ah, she's a would-be Doctor.' The Master said in her memories, 'but tonight, Martha Jones… we've flown them in, all the way from prison!'

Rose remembered how guards had forced Martha's family through the doors, their hands tied together.

'Mum?' Martha had said, her head tilting to the side.

'I'm sorry!' Francine had said, tears in her eyes.

Rose had run over to her, holding her by the arms.

'Martha listen to me, give me the Vortex Manipulator; you need to stay with your family.'

'But…'

'No! They need you, and I need to know that you're here, looking after the Doctor. I can't die, and I couldn't bare the idea of you going while I stay.' She looked into Martha's eyes, tears brimming, 'Please.'

The other woman had seen the need in her eyes. She nodded; passing the device over before both knelt beside the Doctor. The Master had opened the Paradox, sending down the spheres and refusing to tell the Doctor what they were, before the Doctor whispered instructions into Rose's ear, a hastily conceived plan that had to work; every person on the planet at risk if it didn't.

He had told her to leave, his eyes the only part of him unchanged, boring into hers, encouraging her. She had stood up, looking at her companions, old and new, pressed the button. The teleport scrambled her brain, but she forced herself to stand, making a promise, not only to her friends, but also to the Master. A promise that, whatever happened, she would return.

She opened her eyes, tears sliding down into her hair. The unfairness hurt her everyday, of how, having waited for over thirty years, when she had finally been reunited with the man who had filled both her hearts, she had been snatched from him so soon. But, no matter what, she was going to complete this mission, no matter how many times it killed her. She would always complete any task the Doctor gave her.

She turned her head to the side, the sun lighting the sky outside, turning it a reddish pink. She stood up quietly, checking the key and chain were still under her dark clothes, unchanged from the night before. No-one around her moved as she gathered her meagre belongings, pulling a small notepad and pen from her back pack and writing a small note of thanks, watching it translate itself into French when she finished the final letter.

'_Merci beaucoup, mon copains, et au revoir. __Rose Tyler xx'_

God bless that fantastic ship. As she thought that, her hearts faltered. She remembered that terrible feeling, when she they had first returned to Earth, the feeling that her hearts were being pulled apart, increasing when they first landed on the Valiant, and bringing her to her knees as they walked into her cannibalised protector, who had helped her in her travels, sometimes singing melancholy songs in her head if she ever needed comfort. The pain that she had first felt still lived inside her, but she knew that she had to carry on, for every body's sake. Smiling sadly she placed the note on the table beside the door and left the house, breathing in deeply and setting off. She was finally going home.

The boat could only go so far inland, which meant that she had to wade through the freezing water. They had been led in by a man on the beach, waving a lantern. When the boat responded he slowly lowered the light, smiling to himself as he laid eyes on the legendary woman. She wasn't exactly as he had imagined her; just a normal looking woman, early twenties, her dyed-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She smiled at him, exhaustion evident on her face.

'I hope you haven't been waiting long have you, it's freezing out 'ere.' She said.

The man blinked, slightly startled. There's another thing her hadn't expected. He'd thought that she'd be more formal than that, but she seemed to have a strong Londoner accent and a kind smile.

'No, only a little while.' He said, realising that he'd been quiet for a little too long, 'You're right on time.'

Rose smiled at the man. He was quiet attractive, though like most people nowadays he obviously hadn't shaved for a few days, but he seemed nice.

'So what's your name then, no-one really told me?'

'Tom Milligan.' He said, 'No need to ask who you are, the famous Rose Tyler. How long since you were last in Britain?'

Rose breathed heavily, looking slightly distant. '365 days. It's been a long year. And you wouldn't believe how long it had been before that.' She laughed humourlessly. 'Well… this Britain anyway.'

Tom's brow furrowed his brow, but Rose just waved her hand, 'It doesn't matter, Tom. Don't worry about it. Just a fool's joke.'

'So what's the plan?'

'This Professor Docherty, I need to see her.' Rose laughed, 'That's the only name anybody could give me. Can you get me there?'

'She works in a repair shed, Nuclear Plant Seven. I can get you inside. Why do you need to see her of all people? Why's she so important?'

Rose smiled sadly at him. 'I'm… sorry Tom, I don't mean to be rude but the more you know, the more you're at risk. I've made that mistake before. I don't want you to be the latest added to the river of blood that I've left in my wake. I've got enough on my conscience.'

He looked up, away from her gaze, trying to hide his gasp. He'd never thought about how many like him had been willing to save the legend beside him.

He cleared his throat. He had always known that his life would be in danger helping her. Having the statistics thrown in his face didn't make it easier, but he wasn't going to just give up.

'So… are the legends about you true? There's so many of them, I don't know what to believe anymore.'

'And what do the legends say?' she asked. Different countries had different versions. It only made sense to find out what her home country said about her.

'That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America, that you were the only person to get out of Japan alive.' She looked away, blinking away the tears that had built therein. 'Rose Tyler, they say, she's gonna save the world.' His voice lost some of his voice suddenly went dead, his eyes turning to the sea, 'Bit late for that.'

They carried on walking, coming to a small grassy area with tall dead bushes here and there. A large, dirty van was parked out of sight, hidden in the minimal coverage of the empty branches.

'How come you can drive? Don't you get stopped?' Rose asked.

'Medical staff. Used to be in paediatrics, back in the old days. It means that I can travel between labour camps. They need to keep the workers healthy. Need to keep up the work until everything's finished.'

Rose watched as he got into the driver's seat, walking around to the other side.

'Great. I'm travelling with a Doctor. Shame Martha's not here, you'd love her. She's a medical student.'

Tom watched her getting in 'Some versions of the legend say that you were dead. That you rose up like a phoenix.'

Rose laughed quietly. 'Mate, you have no idea!'

He looked out of the dirty front window, forcing himself to pose the question that had been on his mind ever since he'd been told that he was going to meet her.

'Story goes that you're the only person on Earth that can kill him. That only you in the whole world can kill the Master.'

The darkness in her eyes intensified as she plugged in her seat belt. But then it was gone and she was smiling at him, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

'Let's just drive,' She said, before looking out of the window, ignoring his eyes watching her.

A few hours later, as the sun rose over London, the Valiant flew high in the sky and the Master announced himself over the speakers.

'Citizens rejoice! Your Lord and Master stands on high! Playing track three.'

The guards at the door snapped to attention as the automatic doors opened, revealing the Master with his hands against the door frame before spinning into the room as the Scissor Sisters; 'I can't decide' played over the loudspeaker. He danced across the wooden floor, grabbing Lucy's hands and pressing a hard, demanding kiss onto her lips, leaning her over the table slightly, before kissing her hand and spinning her away, not noticing her rolling her eyes and breathing a sigh of relief. At least he was in a good mood this morning. She didn't really want to have to hide another black eye.

He moved over to the table, singing along to the words of the song as he sat down where Martha placed a tray of tea. He picked up the cup and sipped before spitting it on the floor and smashing the cup at her feet, ignoring her gasp as the hot liquid scalded her skin and the china scratched her legs. Maybe he _wasn't_ in such a good mood.

He flung himself up the stairs onto the bridge of the Valiant, picking up a bell from a table and ringing it in time with the beat, watching and smiling as Francine ran to help her daughter.

The Doctor's head peeped out of a small tent, his face sad and tired looking, looking up at Martha, who smiled sadly at him, hiding her pain from him The Master saw the Doctor emerge and threw himself down the stairs, grabbing the old man by his lapels, singing loudly into his face and meaning every word of the song, throwing him down into a wheelchair that one of the guards had out ready behind him. The Master took the handles from the man, spinning the Doctor around while singing in his ears and bringing him to a stop in front of a large porthole and crouching down beside him, looking out onto the blue sky.

'It's ready to rise Doctor!' several Toclafane flew past the window as the Doctor face remained completely blank, 'The new Time Lord Empire. It's good isn't it? Isn't it good?' still nothing. 'Anything?' he waved his hand in front of his unmoving pet. 'No? Anything?' then he noticed the Doctor's eyes following the spheres outside the window, gliding serenely across the sky, belying their vicious nature. 'Aw… but they broke your poor frail hearts though, didn't they, those big nasty Toclophane? Ever since you worked out what they really are. Serves you right though. Should have listened to master. Should have believed me, but no. You just had to go and work it out and upset yourself. I told him, didn't I darling?' he turned to look at Lucy, 'Didn't I tell him to leave it be?' he didn't wait for her to answer, but turned to the Doctor with a cruel flame burning in his manic eyes, 'They say Rose Tyler' that caught the Doctor's attention, bringing his eyes to finally focus on the Master's face, 'Has come back home. Now why would she do that?'

'Leave her alone.' Croaked the Doctor, his voice hoarse from lack of use, but the desperation was obvious, 'Please… just leave her be.'

'But you said something to her, didn't you? On the day that I took control. What did you tell her?'

'I have only one thing that I want to say to you.'

The Master leaned in slightly, almost unnoticeably, raising an eyebrow at him.

'You know what it is.'

'Oh, no you don't!' he stood up suddenly, grabbing the handles, turning the chair around and pushing it away, bumping it into the wall close to where Martha was picking up smashed pieces of china as the computerised voice announced that the had entered Zone One airspace.

'Come on people!' the Master said loudly, clapping his hands, 'What are we doing? Launch day in 24 hours!'

Unseen by the Master the Doctor was looking at Martha, carefully putting three fingers on his leg, his meaning obvious. She gave the tiniest of nods, wiping her hands on her French-maid's outfit and picking up her tray and walking from the room. She passed her mother in the corridor and repeating the sign, Francine nodding and continuing. She saw her dad mopping the floor and showed the sign, which he repeated to Tish as she walked past, carrying her own tray. A guard opened a mesh door, allowing her to enter. There was Jack, as always, chained between two pillars, as always Tish trying to push away unwelcome emotions that seeing this evoked.

'Mornin' Tish!' he said, breathing deep, his face and clothes as filthy as ever, 'Ah, smell that sea air! Fish and chips, that's what I'd fancy. Oh, nice and salty,' he laughed, watching her place the tray on a low table, trying not to stare at her bum as she was forced to bend low.

'What do I get? Cold mashed swede.' She stood up, getting a spoonful of the revolting sludge. 'Remind me not to book on the internet again. This hotel sucks worse than the one on Ralifex 4.'

She gave him a confused look.

'They eat their visitors if they snore too loudly… or should I say breathe too loudly. Very good hearing. Drives them mad.'

She brought the spoon to his mouth, showing the sign her father had shown her, smiling very slightly at the anecdote. Jack saw it, swallowing the orange paste and winking at her.

A huge stone statue of the Master stood high above where Tom and Rose walked through a large quarry, over looking the world that he had created.

'All over the Earth, those ugly great things.' Rose said, picking her way over the loose stone floor. 'He's even carved himself into Mount Rushmore.' She laughed breathlessly, 'Talk about big headed, eh?'

Tom smiled weakly, offering her his hand as they reached the peak of the hill overlooking a vast landscape covered in tall metal rockets and cranes. They lay down uncomfortably and looked out over the scene. 'Here we go. The entire south coast of England converted into shipyards. They bring in slave labour every morning; break up cars, houses, anything, just for the metal, building a fleet out of scrap.'

'You should see Russia. That's Shipyard number One. All the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait, there's a 100,000 rockets getting ready for war. And Paris. The Eiffel Tower has been ripped down, balconies torn out and half the city is levelled, all the houses taken down and the population forced into whatever is still standing.'

'War? With who?'

'The rest of the Universe.' She looked at him, hoping he wasn't going to laugh, 'I've been out there Tom, in space, long before all this happened, and there's thousands upon thousands of civilisations all around us with no idea of what's happening here. The Master can build weapons big enough to devastate them all.'

'You've been in space?'

'Problem with that?' she challenged, giving a look that would make Jackie proud.

'No!' he assured, his eyes wide as her look made him nervous, 'No, just… wow! Anything else I should know?'

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you.'

'You just told me that you've been in space. What can beat that?'

'Okay, I lived in a parallel universe for thirty something years, I can't die and I have two hearts.' She watched as Tom blinked several times, swallowing hard. 'And I've also met Charles Dickens.'

There was no time to say anything else as two spheres appeared from behind the statue of the Master, descending upon them. Tom immediately stood up, reaching into his pocket and bringing up his ID as the first sphere stopped above him.

'Identify, little man.'

'I've got a Licence! Tomas Milligan, Peripatetic medical squad. I'm allowed to travel.' The Toclafane checked he was who he said he was, comparing defining features with its' software. 'I was just checking for…'

'Soon the rockets will fly.' The childish voice interrupted, four blades appearing from its underside.

'And everyone will need medicine!' The other agreed, 'You'll be so busy!'

They both flew away chuckling. Tom did a double take between the spheres and the blonde woman still lying on the floor.

'But… they didn't see you.'

Rose looked up at him, reaching into her clothes. 'How do you think I travelled the world?' she said, showing him the key and chain around her neck.

They left the hill top, making their way back to where they had parked the van.

''Cause the Master set up Archangel, that mobile phone network, 15 satellites around the planet. But really it's transmitting this low level psychic field. That's he convinced the world he was really Harold Saxon.'

'Saxon! Feels like years ago'

'But the key's tuned into the same frequency. Makes me sort of… not invisible, just unnoticeable.' She chuckled to herself quietly. 'The way the Doctor explained it was it's like when you fancy someone, but they don't even know you exist.' She rolled her eyes, 'He really is such a complete git sometimes, I don't know how we put up with him.'

'Well I can see you.' He pointed out, ignoring her words that seemed only to make sense to her.

Rose stopped, smiling cheekily at him, 'That's 'cause you wanted to.'

He looked slightly uncomfortable, before she laughed, showing that she was joking.

'Yeah, I suppose I did.'

'Is there a Mrs Milligan?' she asked, surprised at her own brashness.

'No.' he replied calmly, 'No. what about you?'

'Yeah,' She smiled, 'I think there is someone.'

Memories flashed though her mind; the old Doctor, bathed in hazy golden light as he leant forward uncertainly; her own hands ruffling through the new Doctor's hair as she pulled him close and blindly pressing her lips against his; the way he looked at her, his eyes the same as ever as she pressed the teleport button on the Vortex Manipulator.

She snapped out of her musings, looking at Tom and moving towards the door of the van.

'Come on, I've got to find this Docherty woman.'

'Well we'll til the next work shift. What time is it now?'

'It's nearly 3:00.'


	7. Rose Faces the Master

'I travelled across the world

'I travelled across the world.' Rose said, looking at the faces eagerly drinking in her every word. 'Everyday I see people getting hurt. Rose legends are right, I was the only person to get out of Japan alive, but… you can't imagine what it was like. I stood at the foot of Mt. Fuji and watched people tryin' to get away from the flames, but the spheres cut down anyone who even got close to escape.

'I was stayin' in this house, right, in America.' She laughed nastily, 'he's even replaced the Statue of Liberty. But in the house next door, this starvin' lil boy had stolen this piece of bread from a soldier's plate. The soldier hadn't even wanted it, but somehow the spheres found out. They crashed into the house, found him and killed him. They vaporised him, then his parents and his little sister, because they had tried to save their little boy. Because she'd cried over her brother's ashes. It was…' she shook her head, a tear sliding down her pale cheek. 'His name was David. I'd been talkin' to him the day before. He'd been excited, said that I was his hero. His parents had offered to hide me, but there wasn't enough room in the house. They all lost their lives because they were so hungry; because their ten year old son had stolen an unwanted piece of bread to feed his little sister. And it made me wonder. What's the point? Wha'ever I do, how is it gonna get those people their lives back? It shouldn't be me who is a legend. It should be the people who died. No one even knows most of the people who were killed. No-one will remember them.'

She held up her chin, swallowing back her tears. 'Tha's why I do this. Why I keep fighting. Not just for the Doctor, or Jack, or even to kill the Master. It's 'cause I'm the only one who has seen it all. I'm the only one who will remember. And it's cost me my life too many times to count. But that don't matter. Because if I don't remember them… who will? But if Rose Tyler became a legend, then that's wrong, 'cause you know what? My name isn't even slightly important. I'm supposed to be dead on this Earth, and if any of you tried to find out anything about me, you'd find a list of dead men and women from the battle on Canary Wharf. Remember those ghosts that turned out to be metal men? I was right there when they came through. I was stuck, for longer that you would believe in the place that they came from. But there's someone else. The reason I'm even here to be talking to you now. If it wasn't for him then you'd be talking to his other companion, Martha. If she wasn't killed trying to get here. But there's someone else.

'The man who sent me out there, who told me to walk the Earth. And his name… is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times… saved me so many times, and no-one ever knew he was even there. He never stops, he never stays, he never even asks to be thanked. But I know him. I've lived with him.' She hesitated, looking at the floor. 'I love him.'

Tom looked away from her, knowing from her voice and the way she talked about this mysterious Doctor that his little fantasies were nothing else but that; make believe.

Rose looked up, suddenly uncomfortable. 'And I know what he can do.'

'It's him!' said the woman who had first let them in, who had introduced herself as Jenny, pushing her way inside, 'It's him! My god, it's him! It's the Master! He's here!'

'But he never comes to Earth; he never walks upon the ground!' the young boy from before cut in.

'Hide her!' the woman said, pointing at Rose.

Someone threw a coat over her, but she pushed it calmly away, breathing deeply. Tom cocked his gun, peering through the letterbox to aim it at the Master.

'He walks among us.' Said the boy beside her, called John, fear streaking his voice. 'Our Lord and Master.'

'Ro-se! Rose Tyler! I can see you.' The Master said, impersonating a young child playing hide and seek. Rose stood up, removing the key from around her neck, everybody suddenly looking up as one to stare at her.

'Out you come, little girl. Come and meet your Master.'

Rose was at the door, placing her hand on Tom's gun, silently telling him with a touch that it was okay as she smiled at the others that had gathered.

'Anybody? Nobody? No?'

His attention was drawn to a door opening to his left.

'Oh, Yes!' he said, clapping his hands joyfully, 'Oh very well done! Good girl! He's got you better trained than I thought!'

She walked out calmly, her heartbeats barely above normal, her eyes unwavering.

'Bag. Give me the bag.' He reached into his pocket as she walked forward, 'No, stay there, just throw it.'

She removed it from her shoulders and carefully threw it forward. The Master aimed the laser screwdriver at the bag and pressed the button. A stream of flame-orange light hit the bag, leaving a small fire where it had hit.

Rose tutted, rolling her eyes. 'Oh well done! That had my Gameboy in it! There goes my warranty.'

'Ooh,' he said, tilting his head to the side as he looked at her, 'you're a bit of a joker, aren't you?'

'Like you say,' she said calmly, 'he's got me well trained.'

'Well, I'm afraid, good companion, as I always say; "Siding with the Doctor is a very dangerous thing to do." Your work, my dear, is done.'

He aimed the weapon at her, noting the way she didn't cower away or even blink.

'This is usually the part where people start begging for their lives.' He said, thoroughly put out at her nonchalance.

'I'd rather not give you the satisfaction,' she sneered, 'And anyway, death isn't so very terrifying. Though, a word of warning for _you_. Beware the Bad Wolf. He'll be waiting in the darkness for you. '

'Sweet Rassilion, riddles and death wishes? Where does he find them?' he said, shaking his head, raising the Laser Screwdriver to aim at her hearts. 'Shame I didn't find you instead of Lucy. You're much more entertaining.'

He moved to flick the switch, but was interrupted by Tom slamming open the door to the slave quarters, running forwards and aiming his gun, yelling.

The Master turned his Laser Screwdriver on the man, the laser hitting him square in the chest. The life and energy seemed to go from Tom's body, stopping mid-run and crumpling to the floor, lying spread-eagled on the wet ground. Rose watched in shock, running to him and looking for a pulse. Nothing. No breathing, no heart beat. Tomas Milligan was dead, because of her.

'But you, when you die,' the Master said, watching her, 'the Doctor should be witness, hmm?' Rose looked up it him, fixing him with a piercing stare.

'And here I thought Time Lords were supposed to have two hearts.' She spat sarcastically, 'It seems that you managed to have gotten away without even one.'

'Oh stop,' he sniped back, 'you'll make me blush!'

She just stared at him silently, standing up slowly.

The Master inhaled deeply, breathing in the wet, smokey smell of the city. 'Almost dawn, Rose Tyler.' He looked up to the skies, towards his airship up above. 'And planet Earth marches to war.'

'Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe.' Said the Master's voice in his daily announcement to his enslaved planet.

Rose Tyler stood as the door to the bridge of the Valiant opened in front of her, filled with faces that she had longed to see for so long. The soldiers behind her pushed her with the butt of their guns, her eyes turning to the Master standing high above her, looking out at his kingdom. As he heard the doors open, he turned to look at her, stepping forward to stand beside Lucy.

As she walked in, Martha and her family looked at her, the fellow companion giving her a kind smile. Rose's eyes flickered to the filthy form of Jack, his blue eyes following her slow march across the room. She smiled at him brightly, but not as dazzlingly as when her eyes alighted on the stooped figure of the Doctor in his cage.

She came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the Master.

'Your teleport device,' he prompted, holding out his hand. 'in case you thought I'd forgotten.'

Rose looked down, taking the Vortex Manipulator out of one of her many trouser pockets and throwing it up to him, which he caught deftly.

'And now,' he said, looking down at her, 'kneel.'

She scowled at him disobediently.

'Kneel or I kill one of the Jones family.' He said coldly.

She complied reluctantly, glaring at him, her eyes not leaving his face.

'Down below,' he said, twirling the Laser Screwdriver though his fingers, 'the fleet is ready to launch. 200,000 ships, set to _burn_ across the universe.'

He turned, running up to the window at the back of the room and pressing a button, slipping the Vortex Manipulator into his inside pocket.

'Are we ready?' he said over the comms.

'The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!' said a man's voice.

'Three minutes to align the Black Hole Convertors.' He announced, fiddling with his watch, 'Counting down!' he turned back to them, Jack standing with his hands in his pockets to try to resist the temptation to punch the man in the face several times. And maybe give him a few well placed kicks. 'I never could resist a ticking clock!'

He placed his hands on the banister of the stairs, raising his voice to a yell.

'My children, are you ready?'

Millions of miles up, above the Earth's atmosphere, four billion spheres floated, arranging themselves into neat lines.

'We fly and blaze and slice!' they chanted, 'We fly and blaze and slice!'

'At zero, to mark this day, the child, Rose Tyler, will die.' He laughed gently, 'My first blood, though… I must admit, I find it a bit of a shame to waste such an entertaining woman. Any last jokes?' she stared up at him unmovingly, fixing him with a look that she had learned from her mother, one that would have most men running for their lives. 'No?' he glanced at the Doctor, 'such a shame you got to her before me, Doctor, I could have had quite a lot of fun with this one.' He aimed the Laser Screwdriver at her, 'Bow your head.'

She rolled her eyes, but complied, sighing softly. 'A simple please wouldn't go amiss every now and then.'

'Always got to have the last word, hey blondie?' he laughed nastily, 'Though I've got to say you could have done a better job with those roots, love.'

She scoffed, looking up at him. 'Careful mate! Never insult a Tyler woman about her hair unless you want to lose a few teeth!'

'Well you're not exactly gonna have a chance to hurt me now, are you?' he said, Laser Screwdriver still aimed.

'Oh, my God, are you actually that thick?' she laughed, turning her gaze to the Doctor, 'And here you made me think your lot were clever, Doctor! All that 'stupid ape' business, seems it should have been directed at him.'

'What are you talking about, you insolent little-'

'Look who's talking!' Rose said, standing slowly. 'Seriously? The gun?'

'What about it?'

'A gun in four parts?'

'Yes, and I destroyed it.'

'A gun, in four parts, scattered across the world, I mean, come on! Did you really believe that? They wouldn't have used that in Star Trek! All you destroyed was a plastic toy and some food colouring. And of course my Gameboy, which I will of course be making you pay for.'

'As if I would ask her to kill.' Said the wizened old Doctor, holding the bars of the cage for support.

'Oh well, it doesn't matter.' The Master said, 'I've got her exactly where I want her.'

'Oh aye?' she asked, smiling and raising an eyebrow. 'So what you gonna do now? Hmm? Kill me? You haven't done a very good job with Jack or the Doctor.'

'What do you-'

'I can't die!' she interrupted, rolling her eyes at his slowness.

'Oh, come on!' the Master whined, his shoulders slumping, 'That's just not fair.'

'And anyway, I knew what Professor Docherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son'

Rose recalled the look on the older woman's face when she had said _'That's why I came to find you. Know your enemy.'_

'I told her about the gun so she'd get me here. At exactly the right time.'

'So you're gonna be locked up with your friends instead of out there, giving the people of Earth hope.' Said the Master, 'Suites me! And I get to kill you as often as I like. Ooh, I could invent a new sport!'

Rose turned her head to the side, narrowing her eyes. 'Don't you wanna know what I was doing, all that time, travelling the Earth?'

The Master rolled his eyes, throwing up his arms and sitting on the stairs like a put out child. 'Tell me then, if you must. Might as well give me something to do.'

'I told a story.' She said, 'That's all. No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents all on my own. And everywhere I went I found the people and told them my story.'

Memories came unbidden to her mind, sitting in countless, identical houses, people looking at her with new found hope in their eyes.

'I told them about the Doctor. And I told them to pass it on. To spread the word so that everyone would know about him.'

'Oh, how sweet.' Said the Master, 'Faith and hope? Is that all?'

'No, 'cause I gave them an instruction. Just as what the Doctor ordered.'

She winked at the frail man in the cage, remembering the last time she had been in this exact spot. The Doctor whispering in her ears, his soft breath sending shivers down her spine. _'Use the countdown.'_

'I told them if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time…'

'Nothing will happen!' insisted the Master, pulling himself up. 'Is that your weapon? Prayer?'

The clock on the wall counted down; 16 seconds left.

'Right across the world. Just one word, one thought, at one moment… but with 15 satellites.'

Realisation mixed with fear on the Master's face. 'What?'

'The Archangel Network.' Jack said simply.

'A telepathic field binding the whole human race together. With all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing, at the same time. And that word,' she breathed deeply, smiling brightly, 'is "Doctor"'.

As the countdown hit zero, the Master turned to see ribbons of brilliant white light swirling around the Doctor, the very atoms of the bars of the cage becoming loose and blowing away as his body grew, his limbs lengthening as the light not only encased him, but joined with him, becoming a part of him.

'Stop it.' Warned the Master redundantly, 'No, no, no, no you don't.' he held up his fingers, trying to bring a stop to the miracle that was taking place before him.

Jack stepped forward, but his guard soon stopped him. His eyes rolled back as he breathed a single word. 'Doctor.'

The Joneses followed suit, and the Master noticed a screen on the wall was showing different cities, thousands upon thousands of people chanting one word in unison, over and over again.

'Stop this right now!' demanded the Master, turning back to the Doctor, 'Stop it now.'

Lucy watched, before her eyes flickered shut as she whispered "Doctor".

Rose, Jack, the Joneses, everybody in the control centre of the Valiant repeated the word, over and over again, the screen filling with more and more people joined in the mantra as the Doctor stood up, his face returned to his slightly younger self.

'I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with it's matrices.'

The Master stormed around the room, looking out of the window, up at the screens on the walls, before stopping at the top of the stairs, almost launching himself down them. 'I order you to stop!' he demanded.

All over the planet below, people in every country shouted in unison at the overcast cloud, reciting the word that the great Rose Tyler had told them to say at this exact moment, some struggling with the unfamiliar syllables.

Suddenly they stopped, Lucy looking at her husband in surprise as the spell over her was broken, realising what she had done.

The Master jumped down the stairs, staring at the Doctor with a mixture of shock and anger as the Time Lord's face returned to its youthful familiarity.

'The one thing you can't do.' The Doctor said, not pausing as the change took place. 'Stop them thinking.'

Rose, Martha and Jack laughed joyously, grinning as the Doctor's feet left the ground, rising up to be level with the Master.

'Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this.'

Jack ran over to Rose, Martha doing the same, wrapping their arms around her and laughing, Jack's guard unwilling to hold him back any longer.

The Master raised the Laser Screwdriver, firing bolts of orange light at the Doctor, but the shots were absorbed by the armour-like light.

'I'm sorry.' The Doctor said sincerely, ignoring the laser blasts, 'I'm so sorry.'

The Master gave up, letting go of the button, then twisting the end, looking between the floating miracle and the people of the floor.

'Then I'll kill them.' He said, insanity evident in his voice as he took aim.

Before he had the chance to press the button, the Doctor reached out his hand, the Laser Screwdriver flying out of the Master's hand as if on its own accord, skittering across the laminated flooring, out of his grasp. The Time Lord stared at his hand numbly, turning back to look at his ex-school friend. He stepped backwards, towards the stairs.

'You can't do this!' he insisted, 'You can't do… it's not fair'

An unnatural wind blew around the room, paper flying into everybody's face.

'And you know what happens now.' The Doctor said solemnly.

'No!' the Master begged, his hands flying to his head as the Doctor moved towards him, 'No!' he moved back, scrambling down the stairs, looking up to Lucy for help, but she offered none as the man shrouded in light glided past her.

'No! No!' the Master fell to the floor, backing away, reaching behind him, desperate to find some way of escape.

'I gave you so many chances, but you never listened. But you know. You know what I'm going to say.'

The terrified man turned, his hands fumbling over the imitation-wood walls, scratching his hands over it to find a way from the Oncoming Storm. Finally something that the Daleks had got right. As the Doctor's Converse-clad feet touched the floor, the Master cowered like a child, curling himself as small as possible, his hands clamped tight over his head as he started to cry in fear. The Doctor walked deliberately over to him, crouching beside him and wrapping his arms around him.

'I forgive you.' He whispered, holding him close.

The Master looked up suddenly, grabbing the Doctor's arm tightly. 'My children!' he hissed through bared teeth.

Miles up, six million spheres heard their Master's call, moving as one towards air ship that hovered over Great Britain.

'Protect the Paradox!' the said as one, 'Protect the Paradox!'

'Captain,' the Doctor yelled, jumping up, 'the Paradox machine!'

Jack jumped away from Rose and Martha, pointing to the guards. 'You men, with me!' as he moved, Rose reached for him too late, her shouts lost in the rush people moving out the door.

The Doctor turned to see the Master surreptitiously sliding the Vortex Manipulator out of his pocket, opening it and going to press the teleport button. Just in time the Doctor ran forward, wrapping his hands around the Master's hands as he felt his entire being taken somewhere else.

He slammed down hard on a high cliff top, his feet slipping on loose rock as he writhed, trying to clear the pressure in his head, forcing his eyes open against he dazzling bleached-white world around him. His eyes alighted on the Master, his arms spread wide as he stood on the edge of the precipice, surveying his empire, thousands of rockets standing in front of him as the Doctor pulled himself to his feet.

'Now it ends Doctor!' he said, lightning cracking from the ominous grey clouds that were gathering behind them, as if the Earth itself knew about what was going on. 'Now it comes, the end of this world.

Jack and the militia men ran through the corridors of the Valiant, heading for the store room where the cannibalised time ship was kept.

Above Rose, Martha and the crew of the air ship ran onto the flight deck, checking the computer readouts, every one of them the same message the same.

'We've all six million spheres heading right for us!' Martha read quickly, panic rising within her.

'We've got control of the Valiant.' The Doctor said, willing him to see sense, 'You can't launch.'

'Oh, but I've got this.' Said the Master, removing the device that was attached to his wrist and holding it up, 'Black Hole Convertor in every ship. I press this button, then we stand together. We watch, standing on this dying world as it is cremated. If I can't have it, neither can you. No-one can.'

Jack and the soldiers threw the doors to the store room wide open, only to be confronted by three spheres that stood guard over the TARDIS, all of them turning around to look at their intruders.

Outside, the rest of their kin were flocking around the air ship like a swarm of angry wasps, trying to get inside to protect the thing that allowed them to exist.

The three soldiers and the ex-Time Agent fired at the metal creatures, their bullets glancing of their casings with out the slightest impression. The spheres retaliated, blades appearing out of the undersides of their bodies and firing deadly laser bolts that quickly despatched two of the soldier, leaving just Jack and a single soldier.

'Can't get in,' the soldier yelled, 'we'd get slaughtered!'

'Yeah,' Jack replied, 'happens to me a lot.'

With that he moved forwards, firing at the deadly orbs, his face set as they shot and sliced at his flesh, forcing himself through.

With horrified faces, Rose, the Joneses and the Valiant crew watched silently from a window as the wave of spheres descended, heading straight for them.

'Weapon after weapon after weapon.' Said the Doctor, walking towards the Master, his voice being carried away from him on the wind, 'All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years, and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all.' As he grew close, the Master brought the wrist device into his body, away from the Doctor's reach as if it were a toy that he didn't want his bully to take off him, 'I know you.' The Doctor looked out over the landscape, 'Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do.'

The Doctor held out a hand, which the Master looked at distastefully, 'Give that to me.'

Reluctantly the Master handed over the device, slapping it into the Doctor's outstretched hand.

Breathing heavily, Jack closed the door of the red lit ship. He pushed himself away from the doors, his face filthy and set in grim determination, aiming his gun at the shield surrounding the central column. After a few seconds it exploded, lighting his face with bright orange flames.

Rose gasped, falling to the floor, holding her head. It felt like a thousand bombs had just gone off in her head, her vision clouding as stars danced before her eyes.

As the spheres disappeared, Martha looked around for her, seeing her on the floor, almost following her as the room shook violently.

On the cliff top, a vicious earthquake threw the Doctor and the Master to the ground. Seeing his chance, the Master went to teleport away, but the Doctor reached over him, grabbing it and bringing it in to his body, taking both of them.

Martha tried to stop herself from stepping on Rose as the tremors through the ship increased. Just as she was about to fall, brown-pinstriped arms grabbed her. A toothy grin filled her line of vision, before she looked up into the Doctor's joyous face.

'Everyone, get down!' he yelled, looking around the room. He followed his own instruction, as did everyone else, 'Time is reversing.'

He flung himself and Martha down on the floor next to Rose, taking her hand in his and laughing madly, not noticing that she wore a grimace instead of a smile.

Everybody held tightly onto anything they could find, a strange wind sending sheets of paper flying around the room.

The door guard fell, his hand gun falling out of its sheath and onto the floor, catching Francine's eye.

Through the window they could see multicoloured clouds rushing past the window.

Down below on the planet's surface, people panicked, screaming as an unimaginably strong wind blew them off their feet, some crying as grit flew into their eyes and they were blinded, relying on their friends to lead them.

But then, suddenly they just evaporated into thin air, the only sound remaining that of the wind whipping through the streets.

All over the Earth statues of the Master disappeared, vanishing as the sun raced past. The shipyards full of rockets followed suite, fading away to be replaced by green grasslands or rocky terrain. The Eiffel Tower seemed to rebuild itself, as if someone had pressed rewind on a video.

The moon and the sun reversed around the Earth, taking back the days that had never been meant to have come. 2008 returned to 2007, calendar pages moved of their own accord, going back to the day that it had all started.

Time gradually began to slow back to normal. In the flight deck of the Valiant, the wind died down, paper fluttering down to the floor. The Doctor smiled to his companions, their fingers still tightly clamped around his as they looked around.

Below the sun shone through feeble clouds, shining down on an awakening world. All over the world the streets were full of people and traffic, everyone trying to get somewhere at the same time, none of them realising that mostly they should all be dead.

The Doctor jumped to his feet, looking through the window and pressing computer buttons.

'Paradox has broken.' He announced 'We've reverted back. One year and one day, two minutes past eight in the morning.'

He clicked a button, listening as the panicked voice of a man crackled though the comms. 'This is UNIT central, what's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated.'

The Doctor let go of the button, the voice stopping.

'See?' he asked rhetorically, 'Just after the President as killed, but before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal, planet Earth restored.' He leaned his arm on a beam, looking down at the people still strewn on the floor. 'None of it happened. The rockets, the terror, it never was.'

'What about the spheres?' Martha asked from her position beside Rose.

'Trapped at the end of the universe.'

'But I can remember it.' Francine said, confusion washing over face.

'We're in the eye of the storm, the only ones who'll ever know.'

Everyone looked up at him, still breathing heavily. The Doctor looked around, stopping on Clive.

'Oh, hello! You must be Mr Jones!' he said brightly, jumping over Rose and Martha, grabbing Martha's dad's hand and shaking it happily, pulling the man to his feet, 'We haven't actually met.'

The Master pulled himself to his feet, running towards the door as quickly as he could. The Doctor jumped down the stairs, ready to give chase when the door to the flight deck opened in front of the Master, revealing Jack, who immediately turned the Time Lord by the shoulders, back into the room.

'Woah, big fella!' he said, watching as everyone, even Rose pulled themselves to their feet, 'You don't want to miss the party! Cuffs.' He held out his hand to a soldier, who complied without arguing. Jack slid the metal around the man's hands and held him out for all to see. 'So what should we do with this one?'

'We kill him!'

'Dad!' Martha said, stepping forwards.

'We execute him!'

'Tish, I've told you a million times!'

'Death is not the solution!' the Doctor said, holding up his hands to hold back the murderous Jones family.

'Oh,' said Francine from below him, levelling a gun, the weapon obviously uncomfortable in her hands, her whole body shaking. 'I think so.'

''Cause all those things.' She continued, tears falling from her eyes, 'They still happened. Because of him.'

Silently the Doctor crept down the stairs, his eyes on the gun, coming to stand beside her. 'I saw them.'

'Go on!' the Master prompted, making the Doctor stop a moment in surprise, 'Do it.'

'Francine,' the Doctor breathed as she held back a sob, 'You're better than him.'

She reluctantly dropped the gun, turning into the Doctor's arms, then into Martha's and the rest of her family.

'You still haven't answered the question.' Insisted the Master, his face disgusted at the weakness of humans. 'What happens to me?'

'You're my responsibility from now on.' The Doctor said, breathing deeply,

'The only Time Lord in existence.'

Jack looked between the last remaining members of that famous species, striding over to the Doctor, talking conspiratorially. 'Yeah but you can't trust him.'

'No.' agreed the Doctor, the Master looking over, 'The only safe place for him is the TARDIS.'

'You mean you're just gonna… keep me?' the Master said distastefully.

'Mm, if that's what I have to do.' The Doctor nodded, turning to look at Jack 'It's time to change.' He turned to look at Martha at the bottom of the stairs holding her sobbing mother close, then up to Rose on the next level up, her eyes closed, 'Maybe I've been wandering for too long.' He looked back at the Master. 'Now I've got someone to care for.'

He fancied that he saw the tiniest of flickerings of something akin to acceptance in those dark eyes, but it was instantly replaced to a look of shock and fear as a gunshot rang out and he stumbled back.

The Doctor ran forwards, grabbing him before he touched the floor. 'There you go.' He breathed as if to a child, lowering him to the ground, cradling his head, 'I've got you, I've got you.'

He glanced around to see Lucy standing close to the stairs, smoking gun in hand, her face vacant. She barely even blinked as Jack stepped forwards, his words falling on deaf ears as he gently took the pistol out of her hand. Everybody's eyes turned to the men on the floor, not noticing Rose's hand raising to her head, or her grip on the banister tightening as the sound of the gunshot echoed and multiplied, bouncing around her dizzy head.

'Always the women.' The Master mused, his eyes heavy.

'I didn't see her.' Apologised the Doctor.

'Dying in your arms.' He smiled, 'Happy now?'

'You're not dying, don't be stupid.' The Doctor scolded, looking at the wound to see a scarlet stain blossoming across his shirt, forcing himself to look back into the Master's face, 'It's only a bullet, just regenerate.'

'No.' he breathed, his eyes going wide in insanity.

'One little bullet, come on!'

'I guess you don't know me so well.' He smiled, 'I refuse.'

'Regenerate,' The Doctor said, his calm voice turning to begging as he realised he was serious, 'just regenerate, please. Please, just regenerate, come on!'

'And spend the rest of my life with you?' he sneered hurtfully.

'But you've got to. Come on, it can't end like this. You and me. All the things we've done. Axons! Remember the Axons? And the Daleks.' The Master just lay in his arms, mocking him with a look, swallowing hard. 'We're the only two left. There's on one else. Regenerate!'

'How about that? I win.' He said, then groaned as his body shut down slowly. 'Will it stop, Doctor? Hmm? Will it stop?'

He stared up at the Doctor, his eyes bugging out of his head. But then they rolled back and he fell limp. Tears slowly trickling down his face, the Doctor pulled the Master close to him, pressing his head into his shoulder, rocking his body before screaming in anguish. The sun that had erupted, so very bright, in his mind so long ago, back on that lonely planet that had promised the last of humanity a free ticket to Utopia, now burned to nothing, being replaced by an impenetrable void of darkness. Except there was something, its weak light now the only thing stopping him falling back into depression beyond any sort of prescription. Rose Tyler, saving him from complete insanity. But why was it that now the light seemed to be diminishing; fading into the darkness around it?

Rose was standing, trying to look and listen to what was happening below her, her finders holding onto the hand rail so tight that her knuckles seemed to shine white as she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the vertigo currently trying to overwhelm her. But she knew a second too late that doing so was a mistake, but already she was falling, her shaky balance finally thrown by the small movement. But Jack was there, his fast reactions and keen senses permitting him to easily catch her, gently lowering her down as the Doctor did the same to the Master, still unaware of anything but the passing of the only other survivor of the Time War.

'Doctor!' Jack yelled, 'Get over here!'

The Doctor looked up, tears still staining his face, but as he saw Rose on the floor he jumped up, fear clouding his face as he understood why the star in his mind was waning.

'What's happened, Rose?!' he ran over, skidding onto his knees and shooing Jack and Martha to give Rose space to breath, lowering his voice to a loud whisper, 'What is it, Rose?'

'The Paradox.' She croaked, her breathing laboured.

'What do you mean?'

'Before… she could hide me, stop me from… ripping apart the whole of creation… but she's so weak… the TARDIS… so much pain…'

'Rose, what's happening, what's the matter?'

She smiled sadly, twin tears sliding unbidden from her eyes as she stared into his face. 'I'm a Paradox.' She breathed.

'I don't…'

'You said it yourself, Doctor. When you were talking to Jack. You said he was wrong… that you couldn't stand looking at him… because for you it was instinct. You said that you and the TARDIS automatically reacted against him, 'cause he couldn't die. Well…' she smiled lazily, 'I'm both, ain't I? 'Can't die and I've got two hearts. 'Don't regenerate, but I've regenerative blood.' She pursed her lips for effect, 'Bad combo, that. Before the TARDIS and the Wolf could keep me safe… keep it working together… but they're so weak. They had to keep the Paradox for too long, and now… it's just too much. It hurts her so much, but… I'm failing.'

'Then I'll go sort her out.' He chirped through his fear, tears in his eyes, but as he went to move, a small hand grabbed his coat; the only part of him that she could comfortably reach, forcing him to look at her.

'Don't leave me!' she said, her voice suddenly very childlike and small, 'I can't do this alone.' He moved back to his previous position, resting her head on his knees, stroking her blonde hair. 'It's too late anyway. I won't last much longer. And I've waited to see you for so long. You can't leave me now.'

'Rose, stop talking like that.' He stroked her cheek softly, looking into her dark eyes, his voice becoming pleading as he saw tears forming there 'You can't leave me. Not again. You're literally all I've got left, the only thing. I was broken when you left, but now I'm whole. You can't go again.'

'You always knew it would end.' She said, placing a hand on his chest, 'We both knew that forever was impossible. But…' she stopped, coughing weakly, blood speckling her full lips, 'I wouldn't have wanted to go any other way.' Two sparkling teardrops splashed onto her face, mixing with her own in a constant trickle into her hair, 'Don't cry.' She scolded softly, 'You have to be strong. 'Cause you know what?' he shook his head a fraction, 'I wouldn't have missed it for the world.'

'I…' he said, choking off, sniffing and trying again, 'I love you.' He gently wiped away the tears and tears that offended her beautiful features, his hand shaking badly, 'I should have told you every day from the moment I first met you. I tried so may times, but-'

'Sssh' she whispered, 'I know. I always knew. I just…' she winced, begging her warring enemies within tired body to just down their swords, just live in peace, but to no avail, 'I just wish that it was enough.'

'Rose…'

'Kiss me.' She asked suddenly, her voice returning to that of a small child, 'Please. Just let me have my peace.'

He closed the last few inches, gently brushing his lips against hers in a soft, tender kiss, the taste of her flesh, soft and like sunlight and moonshine now so criminally contaminated by the copper tang of her blood and the salt of their tears. Into their first real kiss they poured feelings that words in any language, known or long since forgotten could even begin to convey, love that only true soul mates could appreciate; pure adoration and unbreakable friendship and devotion that defied the laws of the universe, finding each other in a way that no others ever had been able to do. And in that long moment it seemed that the whole of creation, even Time and Death, his oldest companions, seemed to pause in their eternal march, giving these lovers a moment that could have been an eternity, finally repaying them for all the pain and heartbreak they had bestowed upon them in their long lives, but even eternity, sometimes, wasn't enough.

And they knew that it must end, as all things did. He pulled away reluctantly, looking into her face, at her frail looking body, but seeing in her eyes the strength and brightness that had filled his dreams since that pivotal moment, in a dank basement in London, so many years ago. Into his mind he etched every feature, memorizing the smile that she was giving him that was like the sun, the moon and the stars of every planet in every galaxy in every universe that had ever or would ever exist, and yet in comparison, all these were nothing, mere shadows in the blinding light that had always seemed to emanate from her smile.

Rose smiled up at him, feeling her hearts ramming against her ribs as if they wanted to escape, and she knew that if she had lived for a million more years, she would never have found anything better or more beautiful than the face now watching her to be the last thing that she saw in this life.

'Thank you.' She said quietly, feeling the warm fingers of life starting to reseed from her. 'For everything.'

Her heavy eyes noticed something swirling into being above the Doctor's head, as if formed from golden mist.

'Come at last, have you?' she asked the Bad Wolf jokingly, its amber eyes watching her softly, 'Almost missed me.'

The Wolf bowed its head as if to a Queen, giving her a wolf grin that held no threat.

'You should be taking care of your mistress, dear friend.'

Rose shifted her already hazy focus back to the Doctor's face, their eyes meeting, a look of understanding passing between them beyond that of any other.

'See ya then, Doctor.' She whispered, her eyes flickering shut as the Wolf descended.


	8. Goodbye Jack

chapter 5

**Right, I know that the last chapter made some people unhappy. Lady Clark-Weasley of Books, I'm looking at you! But this is a happy story. So here's the next chapter. I want to thank you all for reviewing, and encourage you again to press that little purple button at the bottom of the screen. It really does make me so happy to hear what you think. I love this chapter to bits, and I'd love to know if you agree. Next chapter will be the last, so get your reviews in, before the end! Mucho loves!**

**P.s. I was slightly naughty with this chapter, and there is one naughty word. Apologies!**

chapter 5

On a cold, isolated corner Earth, a shadowy figure walked towards a tall pyre, the linen bound body of the Master laying atop the piled wood. The Doctor walked forwards, his stony face set as he carried a flaming log, setting the oil-drenched wood alight and watching impassively as the flames took hold. The flickering blaze bathed his face in a hellish glow, throwing sharp shadows across his features.

He walked away from the last of his species, throwing the torch on the ground and putting his hands in his pockets as he walked away slowly. He had insisted that he and he alone should do this, putting the Master to rest. He felt that, as the rest of his people had died in the flames of his burning planet, so the Master should meet a similar end. He reached into his pocket, searching for the TARDIS key and sliding it into the lock, walking silently into the restored control room.

'Is it done?' Martha asked, sitting on the jump seat, having waited patiently for his return.

'It's done,' The Doctor sighed, removing his coat and throwing it over one of the coral like struts that seemed to grow from the floor to the ceiling of the ship. He walked over to the central column, his usual enthusiasm long since gone as he started the dematerialisation sequence. The ship was slow to comply, her recent hurt and heartbreak obvious to even Martha, who had never really understood the fact that the TARDIS was as much alive as she was.

The hammer stood leaning against the underside of the panel, as it always did, offering him a vent for his anger and anguish, but he couldn't. He knew what she was feeling, as she understood his own, and neither had the heart to nag at each other as they usually did.

'Are you alright?' Martha said tentatively.

'I'm always alright,' He replied brightly, the evidence to the contrary written so plainly across his face that she didn't even bother pressing him. 'Where's Jack?'

'Wardrobe,' She replied simply.

'Right ho,' He said, bringing them into the Vortex with a final flick of a switch, not setting any co-ordinates, leaving them to float aimlessly through the Vortex. He left the console, hands in pockets, walking towards the inner door, heading for the labyrinthine network of corridors that made up the bowels of the enormous ship. When he noticed her not moving he turned to look at her, 'You coming?' he offered.

'Nah,' she said, shaking her head, 'I think you two need to talk. I'll only get in the way.'

He nodded, not in the mood to argue, walking out of the room, trusting his sense of direction and the TARDIS to stop him getting too lost. As it turned out he could rely on them both quiet well, only getting the wrong door twice before he found his chosen destination.

'How 'you doing?' he asked as he walked in, closing the door quietly behind himself.

'Not so bad,' Rose replied, opening her eyes and trying to sit up with difficulty.

'Careful!' he said, running over, helping her to sit in a comfortable position, moving the pillows around to help, before settling himself in the chair beside her bed. 'Do you need anything? Water? Painkillers? Soup? Ooh I could make you a nice bowl of soup? Or a sandwich? Ooh oh I could make both, soup and a sandwich? Or I could-'

'Doctor?'

'Yes?'

'You're mother henning again. Well, to be more precise, you're Jackie-ing.'

At her words, his eyes went wide as dinner plates, gulping loudly at the horror of it, making Rose laugh, which swiftly lead to her coughing badly. The Doctor jumped up, living up to his name sake and rushing to help her, grabbing the glass from her bedside table and holding it gently to her lips as he held her up, rubbing circles on her back.

'You okay?' he asked as he lay her back on the pillows, placing the glass on the table.

''M fine,' She assured him, eyes watering but her breathing returning to normal as she placed a bandaged hand on her heaving chest. When he didn't move away she waved a hand. 'Honestly, I'm fine,' She cocked an eyebrow. 'Do you have this effect on every woman you meet?'

He smiled, sitting down and taking her bound hand, his eyes focused on her face. 'Has the amnesia worn off yet?'

'Nah, still blank,' She sighed, flattening the sheets of her bed. 'God I know I've got a bad memory, but this is getting ridiculous.'

'Do you _want_ to know?'

She looked up into the chocolate brown pools that resided in his eyes, uncertain.

'What _do_ you remember?' he asked softly.

'Falling down the stairs,' She sighed, then laughed gently, shaking her head, 'So much for my bronze for gymnastics, eh?' He smiled, laughing with her.

'I remember seeing you holding me, and we were talking… and then…' she shook her head. Surely that wasn't a real memory. It couldn't be… could it? 'But then I only really remember seeing the Wolf, and I said goodbye. Then it all went black, and I woke up here, bandaged and bruised, but feeling better that ever.'

'Well,' he said, moving his chair forward and rubbing his thumb over her uncovered fingers, 'we're all of the opinion that your Mr Wolf decided that it wasn't the right time to let you go. That's why you're all bandaged up… no opposable thumbs.' He lifted his own, waggling it at her to illustrate the fact, 'He might have looked like star dust, but those teeth seem to be pretty solid.'

'Wait, could you all see him?' she asked, puzzlement tugging the corners of her mouth into a confused frown.

''Course we could. He swooped down on you, grabbed your wrist and pulled you out of my arms, barking at me- quite literally- to go get the TARDIS sorted out. Martha and Jack said that he had lay next to you, licking the wounds that he had made, but still making new ones. They said it looked like a mother holding a child's hand to stop them wandering off. I suppose that's what it was, in a way. But then, when I'd sorted out the TARDIS, they said it was like the Wolf just sorta… jumped into you. You didn't go Bad-Wolffy, exactly, you just sorta… glowed. That's what you were like when I came back. I carried you back here, hooked you up to a life support system, and the Wolf jumped out. He sat there for a moment, licking your hand, then nodded to me and… not exactly vanished, just sorta blew away, fading into the walls,' He looked at her, and she nodded, understanding. 'Do you remember?'

She shook her head, but smiling all the same. 'So, I've got to ask… am I still… ya know… Time Lord slash Jack?'

'Yep,' He said, popping the 'p' happily. 'Look at the monitors; two heart beats, nice and strong and healthy.'

'But… what if it happens again? What if she can't save me?'

His face fell. 'I can't change you, Rose. There's nothing that I can do. But, the only person that could do something that devastating is gone now, and I don't think he'll be coming back this time.'

'What do ya mean, 'this time'?' Rose asked, her brows furrowing.

'The Master was a Time Lord; a very powerful and clever Time Lord at that. He seemed to have an unnatural talent of dodging death. But, with my people gone, I don't think he'll be able to resurrect himself on his own.'

She swallowed, knowing that he was putting a brave face on the loss of the last true member of his species. She searched for some way to change the subject, turning to something that had been bothering her for a while. 'How come he could sorta control how he looked when he regenerated?'

The Doctor laughed, shuffling the chair slightly closer without realising it. 'Well, most Gallifreyans could. I just kinda… skipped most of school.'

'I'm in shock!' Rose said, eyes wide as she grinned.

'Ha ha.' The Doctor deadpanned.

'You? Skipping class?' she said, breaking out in laughter, 'I always thought of you as sitting at the very front of class, all the kids flicking pen lids at you.'

'Thank you so much for that insight into your ever interesting imagination, my dear Rose. But if anything I was the opposite. I broke every rule those stuffed shirts tried to enforce.'

'Like what?' she asked.

'Huh?'

'What rules did you break?'

'Wellllll… we weren't meant to interfere with other planets, just to watch over the universe. Not to get caught up.'

'There goes that one!' she laughed.

'Exactly!' he agreed, laughing with her, enjoying the musical sound of her delighted laughter.

'What else?'

'Well…' this was it .she hadn't said anything about the kiss they had shared. What if she regretted it… or did she really not remember. But he couldn't stand not knowing. This was the time to find out.

'Doctor?' she asked, seeing his body tensing and shuffling closer.

'There-' he cleared his throat, his mouth dry, 'There was one rule… Time Lords weren't exactly… we weren't meant to… to fall in love with humans.'

She blinked, her mouth open. 'Oh,' She breathed, her expression unreadable as she turned her gaze away from his penetrating gaze, looking down at their joined hands, wishing that the heart monitor on the wall beside her wouldn't incriminate her by the increase of beeps as her hearts started to beat faster, wondering breathlessly whether he was confirming what she remembered happening in the control room of the Valiant.

'And…' she ventured, her voice noticeably unsteady, 'Have… have you broken that rule?'

'Every day since the moment I fist met you,' He answered, smiling apprehensively as her eyes shot up to meet his gaze.

She laughed nervously, trying to ignore the rapid break-beat of the machine beside her until it became almost a blur of sound. They moved in perfect synchronicity, leaning into each other so close that they could taste each other's breath as their eyes flickered closed…

'Rose, are you alright?!' Jack said, slamming into the room, the devise on his wrist beeping in time to the wall monitor, 'The Vortex Manipulator said that your heart rate just increased sharply, so I…' he cut off, noticing the Doctor and Rose looking rather uncomfortable, Rose's face looking an incriminating shade of red.

'Ah,' Said Jack, looking between them, eyebrows shooting up, 'Bad timing, as ever. I'll just…' he strode over to the screen on the wall, switching it off.

'Well… I'll just... ya know…' he pointed a thumb over his shoulder, before turning and leaving the room as quickly as he dared. He may be immortal, but he didn't know whether immortality was completely Tyler-proof. And also, he didn't much fancy finding out whether that meant that he'd be able to re-grow teeth. He quite like the ones he had already. He certainly didn't want to risk either possibilities.

As Jack left the room, the Doctor and Rose looked at each other, their faces mirroring their own perfectly. Huge grins broke out, then changed into outbursts of insane laughter, the Doctor moving up to sit next to her on the bed and pulling her into a warm hug.

'You, Rose Tyler, are the most amazing, beautiful, fan_ta_stic woman I have ever had the good fortune to travel through time and space with. And there's something that I should have told you every day from the second I first took your hand. I love you, Rose Tyler, with all of both my hearts. And I always will be in love with you, until my very last breath.'

She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. 'I love you too.'

And so, for the first time in their lives, with out the threat of imminent death or possession by bitchy trampolines, their lips touched, tender and sweet and oh so sweet, the only sounds around them of the synchronised beat of their hearts and the proud whispers of the ancient ship around them.

The next day, Rose awoke to see the Doctor sitting in the chair next to her, gently stroking her hair and watching her soundlessly. Still exhausted from her brush with Old Boney's final visit, she had fallen asleep with the Doctor's arms around her and, she suspected, more than just the smallest mental nudges from him not ten minutes after Jack had left the room.

'That,' she mumbled sleepily, one eye shut as she struggled through the veils of unconsciousness, 'was cheating.'

'Well, I know humans well enough to know that, the way we were going, you wouldn't have got any of the sleep that you so desperately needed.'

'Your problem, dear Doctor,' she said, stifling a yawn, 'is that you use Jack to categorise all us humans. We're not all from the 51st century, ya know.'

'Actually,' the Doctor said snobbily, 'I know from personal research.'

'Oh aye?' Rose enquired, sitting up and fixing him with a stare, now assured that her eyes wouldn't start wandering from tiredness, 'I advise you to choose your answer to this question _very_ carefully; Personal research?'

'Well, I of course mean watching human films,' He stuttered quickly.

'Good choice,' She mumbled, stretching and making some rather strange noises in the process. 'So good Doctor, is your patient ready to leave her bed today?' she asked matronly.

He grinned, copying her and putting on posh-Doctor voice 'If she can peal herself to get out of the bed, nurse Tyler, I believe she may.'

Alison Docherty walked silently through the park, enjoying the feel of the summer's sun on the back of her head and the sounds of birds singing and children playing. There was a small group in their late teens, about the same age as her son, chatting animatedly and laughing. She noticed a young blonde woman, about twenty two, carrying a bouquet of brightly coloured flowers and running in her direction. She had expected the woman to run past, but instead she stopped right in front of her, a kind smile on her face as she gently pressed the flowers into her hands.

'Just to say I don't blame you,' The blonde said, her hair catching the sunlight, turning into gold as she grinned, running off and waving.

'But who are you?' Alison asked a moment too late. The woman turned for a second, waving, a knowing wink, and then she was gone, disappearing around a corner. Alison looked down at the flowers, realising for the first time what they were. A beautiful selection of roses; red, pink, white and yellow. Why did that seem so appropriate? She laughed softly at the nagging feeling of recognition in her mind, smiling bemusedly down at the flowers and walking on, heading for her son's flat, not noticing the wheezing, whirring sound of a blue box disappearing from around the corner that the blonde had ran.

The Doctor, Rose, Martha and Jack stood, leaning against a railing in Cardiff, looking out over the courtyard where the millennium fountain stood, their backs to the opera house, watching in comfortable silence as children played and people talked, carrying on with their everyday lives, unaware of how close they had come to a completely different world.

'Time was, every single one of these people knew your names,' Martha said, 'Both of you. Now they've all forgotten.'

'Good,' Rose and the Doctor said in unison, holding each other's hands slightly differently from before. No longer was this a simple sign of friendship, but it had undergone a metamorphosis into something that little more affectionate.

'I'm still thought to be dead,' Rose continued, 'All it would do is make my life harder, and I don't fancy UNIT or Torchwood breathing down my neck. Life with the Doctor gets me noticed enough as it is, thanks.'

'Speaking of Torchwood,' Jack said, clapping and rubbing his hands together, 'Back to work.'

'I really don't mind though,' The Doctor said as he watched Jack slide under the railings. He gestured with his head, nodding back to where the TARDIS stood. 'Come with us.'

'I had a lot of time to think that past year,' he smiled, a thoughtful look washing over his face. 'The year that never was,' He sighed, turning to look at the fountain, 'And I kept thinking of that team of mine.' He turned back, 'Like you said Doctor. Responsibility.'

'Defending the Earth, can't argue with that,' He sniffed, grabbing the ex-Time Agent's wrist and fishing out the Sonic Screwdriver.

'Hey, I need that!' Jack argued.

'I can't have you, walking around with a time travelling teleport,' The Doctor said firmly, zapping the device and pressing the buttons, 'You could go anywhere. Twice!'

'Second time to apologise,' Rose laughed, watching Jack's face, 'Don't think I didn't notice, skulking around the Estate when I was little.'

'You knew I was there?'

Rose scoffed, 'Oh please, half the parents on the Estate warned their kids about you! And when you knocked over the bins, that sorta gave you away. I always said I recognised you from somewhere.'

'I never was much good at spying,' Jack admitted as the Doctor dropped his hand, 'The only reason I passed was 'cause me and the examiner-'

'Jack!' Rose interrupted, knowing Jack too well to doubt where the conversation was going. 'There are impressionable ears around. And I'm sure the kid's parents won't like their children hearing what you've got to say.'

'And what exactly is that supposed to mean?' the Doctor asked suspiciously.

'Just that I don't want Jack giving you any ideas,' She laughed, tongue between her teeth, 'I'm still a bit too weak for you to try out any of his tips.'

'You, Rose Tyler, are a minx,' The Doctor said, feigning seriousness.

'What about me and Rose, Doctor?' Jack said, 'Can you fix that? Will we ever be able to die?'

'Nothing I can do. You're a pair of impossibles.'

'I've been called that before,' Jack grinned, turning and stepping towards the fountain, but then turning back and raising his hand in a salute. 'Sir!'

The Doctor returned the gesture wordlessly as Jack turned his attention to the girls, winking charmingly at them. 'Ladies.'

Rose grinned and Martha waggled her fingers shyly.

'We're all gonna miss you, Rose,' Jack said, lowering his hand. 'I will, of course, but I can think of someone else in particular who'll miss your company.'

'If you're talking about that little weasel, Owen, the only thing he's gonna miss is my curves, and he was _never_ gonna get any of that anyway. And you better tell him that your little trick of making bras pop open by looking at them doesn't work for him, so he can stop eyeballing Tosh and Gwen. Say bye to them, for me though, won't ya?' he nodded, 'And you better take care of Ianto. I don't want to hear that you've been playing him for a fool. You mean a lot to him after Lisa. I've still got his number, and I will be checking in, ya hear?'

'Loud and clear,' Jack nodded, smiling as he turned to leave, but then changing his mind and turning back.

'But I keep wondering, Doctor, what about aging? 'Cause I can't die, but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, ya know. What if I live for a million years?'

'I really can't say,' The Doctor said, failing to conceal a wicked grin.

'Okay, vanity, sorry. Yeah. Can't help it. Used to be a poster boy! When I was a kid, living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to sign up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe they called me.'

He grinned, not noticing Rose's, the Doctor's and Martha's faces dropping, their eyes going wide. 'I'll see ya.'

With that he ran off, towards the fountain and the secret pavement entrance to the underground Hub.

'No,' said the Doctor as Martha tapped his arm and Rose's hand went limp.

'Can't be,' Martha said numbly.

'I'm…' Rose said, stunned, 'I'm… I'm gonna be a head in a jar.'

'No,' the Doctor assured her.

'I'm gonna be a big, wrinkly, ugly face in a jar.'

'Definitely not, no. You're part Time Lady, so-'

'Oh God!' Rose gasped, fear washing over her face, 'That's even worse! I'm gonna be Yoda!'

It had become too much for Martha, her face crumpling up in laughter, hand pressed over her mouth. Soon the Doctor followed suite, laughing guiltily at Rose's shocked expression.

'I don't turn into Yoda!' Rose moaned, poking the Doctor in the ribs.

'Ah, don't worry,' He said, slipping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into a hug. 'You won't turn into Yoda.'

'Really?' she asked looking up at him hopefully.

'Nah,' He replied. 'More like Gollum!'

And with that he was gone, dashing as fast as he could from the Tyler killer slap that he knew he would likely receive if he lingered, dodging around people and laughing manically as he ran towards where the TARDIS was parked. Rose turned to Martha, who had also been watching the Doctor with a bemused smile. They shared an understanding look, nodding to each other and heading off after the Doctor.

This. Was. War.

Five minutes later saw the Doctor pinned to the floor, face down on the cold grille flooring of the TARDIS with two laughing companions sitting comfortably of his back, holding his limbs hard against the floor in an attempt to stop him from struggling. Rose sat with her legs spread to hold down his right arm and leg, tickling his side with her free hands, laughing manically as she saw that Martha had managed to remove one of his shoes to tickle his wiggling foot, joining their laughter.

Meanwhile the Doctor lay uncomfortably, trying to breath between escape attempts and the uncontrollable giggles that racked his body as he desperately tried to stop himself from crossing that delicate line; one that he had danced over many a time, that presented the border between slightly mad and all out mentally insane.

**See! Didn't I say it would all be good? This chapter was a joy to write, and it really did make me laugh. So don't forget to press that pretty little button, just down there. Love ya all!**


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